Jeff Stelling has defended his comment about Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish on Twitter by insisting that he ‘wasn’t having a dig’ when he questioned why he didn’t take a penalty against Italy.
After England suffered penalty shootout heartache at Euro 2020 last night, there was a lot of talk about why Grealish didn’t take a spot-kick, with a certain Roy Keane going in on the Villa man.
But on Monday afternoon, Villa’s creative talent was quick to shut down those Keane claims by stating that he did put forward his name to Gareth Southgate, as he posted on Twitter.
Nonetheless, Villa fans weren’t happy with Stelling’s original comments about Grealish and the angry supporters were quick to point the Sky presenter towards their player’s Twitter message explaining the penalty saga.
This is what Stelling had to say about Grealish, before and after his penalty explanation.
It is a bit of a problem that Grealish has to come out and defend himself about wanting to take a penalty for his country.
Grealish has shown nothing but courage during his career, from helping Villa, who were on the brink of entering administration whilst in the Championship, to promotion.
And also taking a penalty during Villa’s shootout win against West Brom in the Championship play-off semi-finals.
One thing Grealish has always demonstrated during his career is a willingness to do things others don’t.
That’s getting on the ball during highly-pressured situations, and if there is no pressure, he’ll carry the ball into pressure.
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