Jack Grealish's Vegas antics "not an issue" - top players used to come back overweight

Posted Friday, June 24, 2022 by Dailystar.co.uk

EXCLUSIVE: Arsenal legend Nigel Winterburn has backed Jack Grealish by claiming the Man City star's summer partying "is not an issue" and players used to come back "overweight"

Jack Grealish's Vegas antics
Jack Grealish has been enjoying his summer break in Las Vegas (Image: djrusske/Instram)

Jack Grealish's wild trip to Las Vegas has been deemed "not an issue" despite the backlash faced by the Manchester City star.

Grealish celebrated City's Premier League title-winning season by jetting off to the United States last week. The £100million England midfielder hit Las Vegas with a group of friends, where he enjoyed a boozy night out which reportedly saw him out partying until 3am on June 18.

The 26-year-old was met with criticism by pundit Danny Murphy after being snapped open-shirt and looking worse for wear on an escalator. But Arsenal legend Nigel Winterburn claims the playmaker should be judged on his form when the 2022/23 season begins rather than his holidays.

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Talking to Bet365 on behalf of Daily Star Sport, Winterburn said: "They are in the off-season; they know they have to come back fit and ready. There's a shortened interval this year. With social media, listen we weren't bothered because we didn't get filmed, we could do what we wanted.

"These guys have to realise that they are being watched all the time, so they have to be a little bit careful. Everybody can have a judgement, the amount of money they earn, why he is acting the way he does.

"But it doesn't interest me if I'm honest. The only time I'm interested is if a player comes back to my club and I judge him on what he does throughout the playing season. For me it's not an issue, but I don't know if it's an issue for Pep, Man City and their supporters."

Jack Grealish's Vegas antics
The Man City midfielder [fourth from right] partying is "not an issue" (Image: djrusske/Instram)

It comes after Grealish struggled to live up to his hefty price tag following his big move from Aston Villa last summer. He bagged himself a Premier League winners' medal last month but found himself on the bench far more often than he would have liked.

The pressure is now on the former Villa captain to kick on from his three goals and three assists last season and recapture his old form. And Winterburn has downplayed the impact partying will have on the Englishman by recalling how several of his Arsenal team-mates in the 1990s used to come back "overweight" after the summer break.

"As long as he's fit and ready to play, I don't have a problem with it," Winterburn explained. "But it doesn't bother me because I know what some of my teammates used to come back like - overweight - but we are talking about a different game now and a different level of money involved.

"It's how the players react to being in the public eye. It doesn't bother me if you are talking about laughing around in a pool with cans of beer. Those sorts of things, I'm not interested in."