---
title: "Everton eye Man City double as loan rules complicate Grealish return"
canonical: "https://readeverton.com/everton-rico-lewis-jack-grealish-man-city-double/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Gary Gowers"
section: "Everton News"
published: "2026-07-20T10:32:20Z"
modified: "2026-09-22T13:00:24Z"
---

# Everton eye Man City double as loan rules complicate Grealish return

**[Everton](https://readeverton.com/) have stepped up their interest in Rico Lewis, with David Moyes personally pushing for a move that would solve the club’s long-standing right-back problem.**

According to [TEAMtalk](https://www.teamtalk.com/everton/rico-lewis-transfer-news-city-exit-everton-interested-move), Man City are open to selling the 21-year-old for around £30m, despite Lewis being contracted at the Etihad until 2030.

Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Fulham have all been linked with Lewis, but [Everton are currently seen as the club pushing hardest](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/why-everton-made-rico-lewis-154447844.html). His versatility is the appeal — comfortable at right-back, left-back or in a deeper midfield role — and his arrival would let Jake O’Brien return to centre-back after the best part of a season spent filling in out wide.

There’s a complication. Everton also want Jack Grealish back at the Hill Dickinson on a second loan deal later in the window, and Premier League rules block a club from loaning two players from the same club in one transfer window.

That rules out a loan for Lewis if Grealish is coming back on one, meaning Everton’s interest in Lewis would need to become a permanent deal if Moyes wants both players in.

It’s a decision that will shape the rest of Everton’s summer business: sign Lewis permanently and solve right-back for years, or prioritise a short-term reunion with a player Evertonians want back at the Hill Dickinson.

As things stand, Moyes can’t have both without paying full price for one of them — a tension TEAMtalk’s reporting suggests the club are only now beginning to work through.