Jack Grealish candid on fatherhood, summer heartache and 'connection' with England interim boss Lee Carsley

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Jack Grealish will remember September 27 as the day his life changed forever.

There was no footballing epiphany or a eye-opening chat with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

Nor was it a pep talk from interim England boss Lee Carsley ahead of being selected for the Three Lions for their Nations League fixtures this week.

Instead, Grealish and his partner Sasha Attwood became parents to a baby girl, Mila Rose.

Grealish and Atwood did not make news of their daughter’s birth public for ten days, allowing for the couple, their close friends and family to celebrate in private.

Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Grealish said having his daughter has been one of the best moments of his life.

But he hasn’t exactly been given a handbook on how to be a dad.

“I’ve not really had too much advice, if I’m honest, at the moment,” Grealish said.

“Just a lot of congratulations and stuff. Kept it quite quiet for a while, which is what we wanted to do. At the moment, she’s just sleeping all the time so yeah, happy days.”

The birth of his first child represents the peak of an emotional rollercoaster Grealish has been strapped into.

As for the troughs of that same rollercoaster, well, you only have to go as far back as June.

Grealish, and several of his England teammates, were left shocked when he was left out of Gareth Southgate‘s 26-man squad for Euro 2024.

A number of players visited Grealish’s room to console him, while senior players are said to have asked Southgate about the decision after the stunning snub.

The former Aston Villa star also opened up ‘very difficult time’ for himself, even if the extended break gave him the quality time with his family and pregnant partner as well as a strong start to the 2024/25 season.

But he still believes he should have been on the plane to Germany, no matter how fierce the competition was for a spot in Southgate’s squad, who he also holds great respect for given the difficulty of the job.

“He (Southgate) handed me my debut,” Grealish said.

“Listen, they have got a very hard job, managers and especially the England managers. To pick a certain amount of players from the talent that we have is just unbelievable.

“You even look at the players that aren’t in this squad right now and it’s frightening because they’d probably walk into most other national teams. So I do appreciate how much of a difficult job they’ve got.

“But then, yeah, I do think that I still should have gone to the Euros. I fully understand that other players had scored a lot and had really good seasons. But yeah, I just felt like I offer something different, which everyone does, everyone offers different things.”

Much has changed since Grealish’s Euro snub, none more so than in the English dugout as Southgate left his post and was replaced by Carsley, albeit on an interim basis.

Carsley has named Grealish in both of his squads since taking over and gave the City star the keys to England’s attack by slotting him in at the No.10 role.

It was a slight change for Grealish given he plays as a left winger for City.

But when he featured as an attacking midfielder against the Republic of Ireland in what was Carsley’s first game in charge, Grealish excelled.

Given licence to roam across the pitch, Grealish posed a threat every time he had the ball at his feet and got on the scoresheet in the 2-0 win.

Safe to say, Grealish absolutely loved the new role under Carsley.

“Having that freedom to go and just express myself, that’s what the manager said,” Grealish said.

“He (Carsley) is a brilliant guy, a really good manager as well.”

Grealish added: “I think everyone knows that I like playing there. I obviously like playing off the left as well. But I think I played in that inside position a lot more when I was at Villa.

“And yeah, it just must have come from him (Carsley). He must have just thought, ‘I want to try him in there.'”

It may be tricky for Grealish to retain his spot as England’s No. 10 for this international break as Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham return to the squad.

However, Carsley may not need to play Grealish in his favoured position to extract the best out of him.

Instead, the 29-year-old pointed to the instant bond he has formed with the interim boss as a reason why.

“I think I’ve always played my best football when I feel loved off a manager,” Grealish said.

“Pep (Guardiola) does that. But then also when I was at Aston Villa, I had Tim Sherwood at the start, who I had a great connection with. I had Dean Smith, which everyone knows I probably played one of my best bits of football ever under him which got me my move to City.

“And even Steve Bruce, I played really good football under him in the Championship.

“I think sometimes you just have this connection with a manager and, yeah, I feel like I have got that with Lee. I don’t know if it’s because we’re both from Birmingham. But he’s a great guy and the way he lets us know as players, how he wants us to play as a team and also individually, he’s honestly second to none.

“And I think everyone wants to play the way he does because it’s proper football.”

Having started both of Carsley’s games in charge, Grealish will hope to continue the trend for England’s Nations League fixtures this week.

The Three Lions host Greece on Thursday and then travel to Finland on Sunday, with both matches live on talkSPORT.