you could say that about most of the players we’ve signed recently after their first season. Wouldn’t be so quick to write a player off
It’s actually only a few that have started poorly and come good. Many have actually been good straight away.
Dias was superb from the very first ball he kicked.
Laporte was good from the off.
Walker was good from the off.
Ederson was superb from the off.
Jesus was good from the off.
Mahrez actually had a good first season and then bloody awful second season.
Gundogan has been fairly consistent throughout his time here (took a while to hit his best after his injury).
Bernardo was quite good in his first season then rocketed (a bit on his own in that regard as he wasn’t poor in his first season by any means).
Cancelo was average first season then came good.
Rodri the same.
Ake the same.
It’s only really these three that fall into this catagory under Pep. Although I thought Sterling was poor under Pellegrini and then got a lot better under Pep.
Hopefully Grealish can take the same trajectory as Cancelo Rodri and Ake!
But I actually never really rated him that highly at Villa. I always thought he got overrated because he was linked with United over two years, and I always thought we could wind him up and take him off his game like we did in the EFL Cup final two years ago when we shithoused him all game and he spent most of it punching the floor and moaning at the ref.
Saying that, look at Cancelo first season - a diving, injury feigning, moaning, moody, soft arse wanker, I openly said at the time I hadn’t disliked a City player since Danny Mills but I didn’t like Cancelo… yet now all that shit he brought with him has disappeared, and he’s great.
Hopefully things do turn around for Jack, but I’m disappointed, although not wholly surprised, so far.