David Moyes has said Jack Grealish’s determination to relaunch his career and prove people wrong in the process convinced him that the Manchester City outcast could bring excitement back to Everton.

Grealish is “looking fabulous, in great shape” and in contention to feature in Everton’s Premier League opener at Leeds on Monday, according to Moyes, despite not playing in pre‑season having fallen out of favour under Pep Guardiola. The 29-year-old started only seven league games for City last season and was left out of their 27-man squad for the Club World Cup this summer. He was also omitted from the England squad last summer for the European Championship after losing his place following City’s 2023 treble-winning campaign.

Moyes “tried to get as much information as I could” on Grealish’s problems at City, although he has not spoken to Guardiola about what occurred, but says the player’s hunger to recapture the form that made him Britain’s first £100m footballer banished any doubts over the loan.

“The knowledge that he thinks he’s got a little bit to prove and to stand up,” the Everton manager said on what convinced him to sign the England player. “I’ve had to do that myself. I’ve had to come back from being knocked down. Sometimes you have to have that resilience to bounce back, to fight back and to show everybody. I just sense Jack is carrying that with him now. I hope it shows through this season because, if it does, then we’ll get a lot of good things from Jack.”

Grealish was Everton’s sixth summer signing – a seventh soon followed in the goalkeeper Tom King – but the squad remains light in several departments with various transfer targets missed. Moyes believes the legacy of recent relegation scraps and no European football has deterred some players but, with Grealish on board, Everton have stated their ambitions clearly.

“It is a big thing for me,” Moyes said. “The club have done brilliantly to build a new stadium. I think now there has to be a building of a football club back inside it, to get it back to where it was and more importantly to get the team back to where it was. We are a long way off at the moment. I don’t think we can do that in this window and make the team what we want it to be, but we are going to need people along the journey to make it more exciting and make people want to come and play.

“Whether that is through high-profile players or our league position or how we are playing, we are needing some of them to give us a lift now. There’s been quite a few players who I’ve been disappointed have not chosen to come to Everton this summer and I think that’s because, if you look at the last four or five years, we’ve not been in great shape. Hopefully they are beginning to see a new stadium, great results in the second half of last season, and they start to believe Everton is a good home for them.”