Former Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United boss Harry Redknapp admits he would handle Jack Grealish completely differently to Gareth Southgate, if he was England’s manager.
Grealish has often struggled to win regular minutes for the Three Lions under Southgate and while Britain’s most expensive player of all-time does have 22 England caps to his name, he has started only 11 games for his country, including just one start in England’s run to the final of the European Championships last year.
On Tuesday night, Grealish was once again left on the bench by Southgate for England’s 1-1 draw with Germany in the UEFA Nations League. The Manchester City star replaced Chelsea ’s Mason Mount with 18 minutes to go, but Grealish impressed when coming on as Harry Kane scored a late penalty to earn England a point in Munich.
Redknapp, whose managerial CV included four years at Spurs, seven years at West Ham and 642 Premier League matches, has said that if he was in charge of England or any team with Grealish in it, he would love to have him and give him considerably more minutes than Southgate currently does.
“I’ve said all along I don’t think Gareth is a great fan of Grealish I really don’t,” Redknapp told talkSPORT. “He got into the team in the first place before the Euros when public opinion was really so strong for Grealish that he had to - he was coming off the bench and doing fantastic stuff.
“I just think - we’ve all got opinions on players when you’re a manager, some we like, some the crowds favour but you don’t play them because they aren’t what you want or you don’t see them as part of your team or how you want to play. I just feel like he’s one of them.
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“It’s a game of opinions, he’s the manager, he chooses his own players and how he wants to play but I don’t think he sees Grealish - I don’t think he’s particularly enamoured with Grealish - it’s just my opinion.”Redknapp continued: “Oh yeah I’d play him. He’d be right there. I love him, he’d be one of the first names on my team-sheet for sure.”
Grealish’s numbers of goals and assists did not particularly capture the imagination in his first Premier League campaign at City after signed the winger for £100million from Aston Villa last summer.
The 26-year-old scored only three league goals and provided the same number of assists in the 2021/22 league campaign, averaging or a goal or assist every 319.5 minutes in England’s top-flight.
He did however rank seventh in the league for most key passes per appearance and most fouls won per appearance, showing that there was more to his game in his debut season than a poor return of goals and assists.
Grealish did impress in his cameo role against Germany and will look to start in either of England’s remaining UEFA Nations League matches this month, hosting Italy on Saturday before a meeting with Hungary on home soil three days later.
Having both England and the Republic of Ireland at youth level, Grealish opted to play for England at senior level, making his international debut under Southgate in a 0-0 draw with Denmark in the UEFA Nations League in September 2020.
