The ‘Good Samaritan’ in Paul Merson recognises a fellow troubled soul in Jack Grealish.
Unfortunately, it seems as if the Aston Villa man has much better things to be doing than chatting to the ex-Arsenal player about falling out of nightclubs at 4am.
Grealish is being frozen out at Villa by new manager Remi Garde after some light-night high-jinks, and it seems that the England man might be training with the U21s for quite a while.
He was dropped from the club’s first team action and, last week, Merson claimed that he would be available to talk to the youngster about his recent escapades.
But speaking on Sky Sports News today, the ex-Villa player was not happy having being snubbed by the 20-year-old, especially considering that the player’s agent had set up a meeting.
“His agent called me on Friday and said: ‘He wants to meet you and have a chat. I was supposed to meet him [on Wednesday] and it didn’t happen. I’m not chasing around now.
“I said I’d talk [with him] and that’s it. If he wants to talk he’ll talk, that’s completely up to him.”
Villa face Southampton on Saturday. Speaking at today’s pre-match press conference, Garde confirmed the former Ireland underage starlet will not be included in the match day squad as he is ‘still paying’ for his mistakes:
“He has trained this week with the under-21s because it was the plan. He knew that. I know when he might return, he knows as well and when he will I will tell you.”
“Like every player Jack made a mistake and he has to pay the consequences for that. If another player does something wrong he will have the same treatment.”
“Jack is young and will be back because when he is fully committed in his job he will be a good player.”
