With pre-season due to commence on Monday, Manchester City's players will be raring to go as preparations begin for the 2022/23 season.
New signings Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez and Kalvin Phillips will be keen to impress Pep Guardiola and prove their worth, while City's stars of last season will be just as eager to show that they deserve to keep their spots in the manager's best XI.
But perhaps the player who will be most desperate to impress over the next few weeks will be Jack Grealish. City signed Grealish just a week before the start of last season, meaning that this summer the 26-year-old has the chance to get a full pre-season under his belt.
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Grealish endured a mixed first season in sky blue. Like most new signings the England star took time to adapt and look comfortable in Guardiola's complex system, partly accounting for his relatively underwhelming return of three goals and three assists in the league.
Even though 'first-season syndrome' is a well-known phenomenon when it comes to Guardiola teams, Grealish came under harsh criticism for his performances, largely because of his £100m price tag.
Guardiola publicly defended his attacker on multiple occasions, insisting that the former Aston Villa man was doing things that statistics such as goals and assists do not show.
However, Grealish himself admitted that he must improve in 2022/23, and if his latest social media posts are anything to go by, he might be about to show the world exactly why City signed him.
Like his teammates, Grealish has been enjoying a few weeks' holiday, but that doesn't mean that he's been partying the whole time. Over the past week City's No.10 has been on holiday in Greece with his partner, but he's found time to put in solo training sessions in the heat of Santorini.
City's players are not expected to train particularly hard during their vacations, as long as they do not report for pre-season overweight or out of shape. But Grealish has been going above and beyond, a sure sign that he is determined to prove his doubters wrong and play to his full potential in the new season.
With Gabriel Jesus gone and Raheem Sterling set to follow, Grealish has been presented with a golden chance to secure more minutes this season. They won't be handed to him on a platter, but clearly he is willing to put in the hard graft.
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