Jack Grealish likes to feel the hate.
The Manchester City midfielder, 26, seems to attract all the wrong attention - both on and off the pitch - but insists it doesn’t bother him one bit. After a summer spent living a champagne lifestyle celebrating City’s title win in Ibiza and Las Vegas, he has reported back to duty at the Etihad with a physique that appears to be carved from marble.
Grealish worked himself hard away from the paparazzi cameras - and is ready to attack the new season with the conviction of a player who is driven by a desire to prove there’s substance behind his glamorous public image. Posting Instagram pictures of himself training in Santorini only prompted jibes from City team-mates who have otherwise become hugely protective of the England midfielder in the 12 months since he became the most expensive player in Britain.
But on Wednesday night in Texas, they saw him being booted up and down the NRG Stadium by Mexican defenders and heard him jeered by 60,000 baying fans. Grealish’s answer? “You’ve got to smile, haven’t you?,” said the £100million midfielder. “What else can you do?
“Someone just said to me, ‘why do you like it? I said ‘I don't know’. To be honest, I feel like I got more of it when I was at Aston Villa. But it gets me going and stuff - so I don't mind it at all.
“I get it at a lot of places now. I feel like I've just got to embrace it and prove them wrong. I feel like I could have tonight (against Club America). I should have scored the one with my left foot in the second half. But I'll try and save one for Saturday.”
Grealish felt he should have had two penalties as two Kevin De Bruyne goals hit the Mexican hatchetmen where it hurts. There could have also been two red cards for reckless tackles on him that threatened to inflict serious damage.
Grealish said: “I had a few kicks, but it's all obviously part and parcel of the game. We knew it was going to be a tough game, an aggressive game. We knew that they were probably going to be fitter than us because it's our first game.
“We've only been training for, what is it, two weeks? It was a good test for us and we have another strong test against Bayern Munich on Saturday. I obviously don't mind being kicked, but I've just watched them back and there were definitely two penalties.
“I said to the ref ‘if it's not a penalty then surely you have to book me.’ He admitted there was contact so I said ‘how's it not a penalty then?’ He said there wasn’t enough contact. But there definitely was. I've watched them back.”
Grealish appears to have it all now that he’s got his first Premier League medal. He delivered on the promise he made within minutes of lifting the trophy that he was ready to party.
Pictures of him clutching expensive bottles of booze were soon doing the rounds. Grealish makes no apology for that. He returned to the Etihad chiselled - and got plenty of stick off the rest of Pep Guardiola’s squad for letting the world in on it.
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“Obviously I was going to enjoy myself,” he said. “I went to Ibiza after we won the league and then I went to Vegas after my England trip.
“Apart from that, I was away with my girlfriend, working hard and trying to get back training. I got a lot of stick off the lads for posting too many training photos on my Instagram.
“I think it's just one of them: when I do something, partying or whatever, it's going to get picked up on more than others. I've seen a lot of people in Ibiza and Vegas, but they didn't get nowhere near what I got.”
