Dean Smith’s Premier League strugglers Aston Villa have found themselves at the centre of a Jack Grealish controversy.
Stan Collymore believes that Jack Grealish should lose the captain’s armband amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the Aston Villa skipper, while speaking to the Mirror.
The academy graduate turned talisman has dominated the headlines for all the right reasons this season, establishing himself among the Premier League’s elite with a series of virtuoso performances in the iconic claret and blue shirt.
But it was Grealish’s actions off the pitch that have kept him on the back pages during this global health pandemic.
The 24-year-old flouted government guidelines while breaking lock-down rules this week, leading to plenty of criticism from those inside and outside of the game.
Grealish issued an almost immediately apology but Collymore, the former Aston Villa striker, believes that he should be forced to hand over the armband as punishment.
“My disappointment, upset and anger was palpable,” Collymore says. “I was gutted as well, because he’s a good kid — a very, very good kid — and it’s such a shame he has let something like this happen.
“Villa will be desperately disappointed and you wonder if the big clubs who were perhaps considering a move this summer might now wonder if he’s worth the gamble.
“You also wonder if this could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of an England call-up. I wouldn’t go so far as to sack him if I was Purslow, and the club have fined him, but I’d take the captaincy off him for the remainder of the season.”
Fortunately for Grealish, Euro 2020 has been pushed back to the summer of 2021, giving a midfielder who is still yet to earn his first ever England cap another 12 months to prove himself to the clearly sceptical Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate.
A big-money move to Manchester United would undoubtedly boost his international prospects. But it remains to be seen whether this rather unwelcome debate makes United think twice.
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