Newcastle United fans have been warned that booing Jack Grealish on Sunday may motivate him into proving a point. It’s largely expected that the £100m man will get a feisty reception from the Geordie faithful following his comments about Miguel Almiron.
Back in May as Manchester City were celebrating winning the Premier League title, Grealish was captured making a joke about Riyad Mahrez at Miguel Almiron’s expense. The England international remarked that Mahrez had played ‘like Almiron’ during the champions' final-day victory over Aston Villa.
It was a remark that angered most Newcastle fans who felt it was a disrespectful dig at Almiron. The Paraguayan had a storming pre-season with many Toon supporters joking it was down to Grealish’s harsh words serving as motivation.
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The build-up to Newcastle’s game against City has carried the side story of Almiron and Grealish with the former Aston Villa midfielder set to get a very negative reception at St James’ Park. Yet, the United faithful has been told that welcoming Grealish in such a manner might work to his benefit.
Speaking on The Everything is Black and White Podcast, Manchester City writer Joe Bray told Andrew Musgrove: “He never gets a good reaction anyway, just because of his price tag and his personality.
“It was probably not a very wise thing to say [about Almiron] but by all accounts at that Champions parade, he’d not really had much sleep and he was in a very, very good mood, having just won his first Premier League title. They we were all just having a laugh and letting their hair down and it was probably a dressing room joke that shouldn't have gone on social media.
“You can understand why Newcastle would be annoyed. I'd forgotten about it personally until you said it but I would imagine people don't need an excuse to boo Grealish. They were in America on the preseason tour and they played a Mexican side and he got kicked in every opportunity.
“We spoke to him after the game because he could have got injured - they were really targeting him - and he said ‘I like it, it drives me on, it spurs me on when people kick me or people boo me.’
“He was sort of saying ‘bring it on.’ So if you're going to boo him, fair enough, but just be aware it might spur him on to have a good game and show you something and pop it in the back of the net.”
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