‘For some reason’: £100m player calls out Leeds fans who have left him baffled

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Jack Grealish has told Sky Sports that ‘for some reason’ he gets ‘stick’ from Leeds fans for his apparent ‘diving’ even though they aren’t Aston Villa’s rivals.

A rising playmaker with a deft touch, Grealish was the most fouled player in the Premier League last season and is the most fouled player during these opening few months of the new campaign.

Whilst both Villa and Leeds have had their controversial games during their time in the Championship, it has added spice to their meetings now that they can lock horns in England’s top-flight.

And Grealish shared that whilst he understands the ‘stick’ he gets from local rivals, such as Birmingham, West Brom and Wolves, he is perplexed with the Leeds one.

“I get so much stick, honestly on social media from opposition fans saying ‘Oh, you go down too easy’,” said Grealish. “Which, at times, I probably do. But that’s just the player I am and the team that I am in, at the moment.

“Sometime we are a team that need to slow the game down. It’s part of my game. It’s what I have to do. We are good from set-pieces. That ain’t saying I dive at all. But there is a difference between winning fouls and diving.

“I don’t mind stick off opposition fans. It’s usually just off the same fans if I am totally honest. It’s Blues fans, West Brom, Wolves and then Leeds for some reason. I’m not sure why Leeds fans. I can understand the ones that are close to us and are rivals. But it’s all just banter at the end of the day.”

Whilst Grealish racks up the fouls every game he plays in, the boyhood Villa fan is also seeing his price-tag taking an upward trajectory as well.

The Telegraph recently claimed that Aston Villa now value their star man at £100 million following a series of top-quality performances in England’s top-flight.

Whilst Villa had more bad moments than good last season, one thing that didn’t change was Grealish wowing the crowd week in and week out. And it isn’t a surprise that he has gone a level beyond now that his teammates have also raised their game this season.