Kevin de Bruyne has leaped to Jack Grealish’s defence by claiming that the winger is unfairly treated due to being English.
During his time with Aston Villa, Grealish often stole the show and was the club’s star man. As a result, he was selected by England manager Gareth Southgate as part of the squad for Euro 2020.
Grealish shone during the tournament and secured a club record transfer to Manchester City for £100 million.
However, since his move to the Etihad stadium, Grealish has so far failed to produce the kind of form he displayed at Villa Park.
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Due to his underwhelming start to life as a City player, a lot of attention were placed on Grealish’s every move.
The England international was heavily criticised during the summer after videos of him enjoying himself whilst on holiday in Las Vegas and Ibiza emerged.
Grealish’s teammate, De Bruyne has now defended the 27-year-old.
He said, per the Daily Mail: “It is not about football. Outside of football, the focus is more on them [English players].
“I understand because they are English and people tend to look more what is happening. I feel like foreign players, for instance if you have a night out, we don't really get checked that often.”
De Bruyne continued: “Whereas I feel if an English player goes out, it is always in the media somewhere. I think people are taking this on board also.
“What he does in his private life he does, nobody should care, but people do.”
The Belgian has urged fans to be ‘patient’ with Grealish, stating that he is not too worried about his recent struggles.
He added: “I don’t feel anybody necessarily thinks about how he felt moving away for the first time and people think it is always easy to do that. But there are a lot of obstacles coming around with moving clubs and houses and whatever.
“You know obviously he needed some time to settle in but he is fine. Be patient, I am not too worried.”
Grealish scored his first goal of the season during City’s 3-0 win over Wolves on Saturday.
After the match, he reiterated that he has to score and assist more goals.
Grealish said on BT Sport: “Rightly so people have been asking questions, I should be scoring more and getting more assists.
“I am always going to have people talking about me with the money that was spent on me, but all my career I haven’t scored enough goals. I do want to add that to my game.
“It is nice when Pep defends me. He has been brilliant with me. I probably have to thank him because he gave me the opportunity today after my performance on Wednesday because it probably wasn’t the best.”
Topics: Manchester City, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Pep Guardiola
Marcus Chan