Over the years, many clubs have made various ill-advised signings; however, I fully believe that this one tops the lot. There is absolutely no reason why the English midfielder should command a transfer fee of even £50 million, let alone double that.
It is true that he is coming off a breakout season for the West Midlands club and performed above expectations at Euro 2020. At 25, Grealish is just beginning to enter his prime. However, his performances to date as well as his potential ceiling do not even come close to warranting his extravagant transfer fee.
To put this figure into perspective, Grealish is now the sixth-most expensive signing ever. He is ahead of players such as Eden Hazard, Paul Pogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Gareth Bale. Barring a massive leap, Grealish will not even come close to approaching the levels that those players attained when at their respective peaks.
Here's another statistic to consider: Grealish has become the second-most expensive midfielder in football history, only behind Philippe Coutinho. For that matter, just look at the list of the 10 most expensive football transfers. With the exception of Ousmane Dembélé, Grealish is clearly several tiers below every other player on that list.
And on top of that: what exactly does Grealish bring to City which they don't already have? Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva both possess similar skillsets to what Grealish has; both are also clearly better players. Grealish will also have to compete with Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez for a starting berth. This means that it could very well have been the case that City just spent £100 million to sign a player who will primarily find himself on the bench.
At this point, I would select Dembélé's move from Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona for €105 million in 2017 as the worst signing ever. Despite all the hype which accompanied the Frenchman's arrival at Camp Nou, a combination of both injuries and underwhelming play have seen him slip down the pecking order at the Catalan club. Certainly, Barça must now be looking back on his purchase with regret, especially considering the fact that while he did seem to have a promising future early in his career, almost no one pegged him as a player worthy of such a high transfer price.
It certainly looks as though a similar scenario is playing out with Grealish's move to City. However, this transfer could end up being even worse than Dembélé's for several reasons. For one thing, Grealish is 25; Dembélé was 20 when he joined Barça. Though extremely unlikely, it was not as unrealistic for some to expect Dembélé to become an elite player due to his younger age. It will be almost impossible for Grealish to live up to his lofty price tag.
Grealish's club of origin also makes his transfer even more damning. Aston Villa finished 11th in the Premier League last season. In his entire time at the club, that was Villa's best league finish. His only taste of a high-stakes top-level match at club level was the 2015 FA Cup final which Villa lost to Arsenal. On the other hand, when Dembélé came to Catalonia from Dortmund, he had been part of a team which had just finished third in the Bundesliga, won the DFB-Pokal, and reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League.
On the face of it, there seems to have been absolutely no logic or thought applied by City's front office when making this signing. It's an extreme overpay for a player who has proven almost nothing, does not appear to have superstar potential, and will likely be confined to the bench most of the time.
I'm certainly willing to be proven wrong, but five years from now, I fully except this signing to have gone down as one of the worst signings, if not the worst signing, of all time.
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