Jack Grealish has become a role model for drunken party monsters with his celebrations after Manchester City’s European Treble success – but some seem to find shades of Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne in him.
For those unknown, Gascoigne was an iconic English player in the late 1980s and 1990s. Gazza was a highly talented midfielder who could do it all, from scoring goals to creating them or even running rings around defenders with his dribbling ability. Even though he became a darling in England and an idol for many aspiring footballers to come after him, Gascoigne had a self-destructive personality.
He was too addicted to drinking and his addiction ended up holding him back from enjoying an even better career. For some fans, the antics of Grealish in the Manchester City open-bus parade or the celebrations after winning the Champions League show similar shades to what destroyed Gazza.
Grealish did go over the top with his celebrations and uncontrollable drinking binge in the celebrations, but he did that so with the permission of the club. After undergoing a gruelling campaign with little break and having to feature in every single competition for the Cityzens, you can’t blame him for letting himself go to the parties with his buddies.
The 27-year-old was spotted drinking a lot of alcohol, be it champagne, beer or even something stronger. All these videos going viral on social media have irked some of the older generation, who believe that the City man is setting the wrong example for the youngsters by showing that it’s fine to become a freak in such a drinking marathon.
One senior lady, who calls herself a ‘social behaviour expert’ Liz Brewer in particular, voiced her disdain at Grealish’s actions in a show hosted by GB News, stating how he sets the wrong message for the kids by going on a four-day binge, being naked till his waist and been pictured with having vodka poured down his mouth at one point.
This sparked a major debate with the host Nicola McClean, who defended it by claiming it was a one-off celebration. One of the pundits also weighed into state that Grealish is actually a role model for many children because of his playing style, the way he carries himself on the pitch and for being family-oriented too.
The social behavior expert kept on rambling about how the 27-year-old winger needs to act better and stop acting like this in public, which kept infuriating the host to the point that she called out Brewer to ‘go see someone’ for blabbering the same things over and over again.
How Grealish differs from Gazza
In Brewer’s defence, it’s not at all right for children to be inspired to start drinking alcohol by seeing all these clips on social media – but Grealish isn’t the first or the last person to do something like this. Sportspersons all over the world like to let themselves loose in title-winning celebrations and clips from that can be easily available to the kids as the videos of the City star’s drinking session.
When it comes to the comparisons to Gazza, however, that doesn’t just make much sense at all. For one, this isn’t the 1980s or 1990s when the football managers or coaches were less lenient with controlling the players’ lifestyle. Grealish, for one, can never keep himself on a drinking spree all through the season under a manager like Pep Guardiola.
The Spaniard will instantly punish him or even issue a sale if Grealish starts acting like a drunk through the season and this fear of a potential downfall will itself never allow the England international to drown himself in alcohol like Gazza did.
It’s not that Grealish is a saint, as he was also punished for breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules a few years ago while being drunk, but he’s handled himself much better since that incident. The four-day celebration thing was just him having genuine fun with his teammates in an attempt to make the celebrations even more epic.
Moreover, Grealish has never been accused of or found guilty of doing drugs – which Gazza used to do by sniffing 16 lines of cocaine at his worst. The English winger has kept himself quite disciplined according to Gazza’s standards and worked admirably hard to make himself a regular in the City team after an underwhelming debut campaign – where he rarely played.
Fans defend Grealish from Gazza comparisons
A lot of fans have defended Grealish from the Gazza accusations, stating that he’s nothing like the iconic midfielder in terms of having a drinking or drug addiction. Moreover, Jack has also managed to do something which Gascoigne struggled with – which is actually using the most of his ability to help his team win major trophies – which Grealish has done since he arrived at Manchester.
Moreover, the City winger also showed discipline in being able to turn up at the England national team camp in a totally sober state after the celebrations and showing a desire to play for the Three Lions despite an extremely exhausting final few weeks of the domestic season.
Grealish has already surpassed many England legends in terms of achievement after winning the glorious European Treble and his celebrations drinking session has actually made him a more popular and relatable character among the fans in England than come off as a bad influence.
