I appreciate what you're saying here, are you really sure you can't quite get why Grealish is more marketable...
"in the UK/England"?
That was what the rest of my sentence was pointing to as well.
I listed some reasons why Grealish' being English makes him particularly valuable to a club like City one being due to perceived negatives/media coverage in the UK/England in seeking to change that.
However, even whilst marketing value no doubt was one key incentive behind signing him, and why we pay the 100m, more than clubs from outside of the PL would pay, there is no way City would sign a player primarily for marketing reasons, clearly.
Are we not forgetting how adored he was during the Euros by English fans whinging on and on about how he didn't start every game? He also has extreme confidence, good looking, and personality and...is Enlglish, which leads to younger / more casual fans more likely to catch their interest.
You don't think we have more younger and more casual "glory hunter" fans (like ALL successful clubs do in any sport) from the UK now both from and not from Greater Manchester than the past as a result of signing him?
Ian Cheesman interviews some of them (one a "Yank" that I was embarrassed to see him interview making us all sound like this after a match last season).
Like this or not.