“Pep Guardiola is the best coach in the world,” Gareth Southgate says, and it is plain the England manager has plenty of reasons to toast his Manchester City counterpart, chief among them the improvement he has overseen in Jack Grealish.
When Southgate first began to pick Grealish at the start of the 2020-21 season, the winger was not exactly known for tracking back. Not any more. Not after his move to City from Aston Villa in 2021, not after two seasons of Guardiola, this one the breakout, which has the potential to end in treble glory.
