Sign up NOW for our daily Villa newsletter direct to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Aston Villa youngster Jack Grealish has come under-fire from former Tottenham Hotspur and QPR boss Harry Redknapp.

Speaking the Independent he said: “Why do they have to go out and act like idiots, get drunk, falling over? They’re professional footballers.

“Jack Grealish, he’s had an excellent year, an excellent second half of the season, plays in the Cup Final and then goes and does that.

“Why do these English players have to go and get silly drunk, and lay in the street and fall over? It’s alright for his mate who’s doing it, who’s cleaning windows, if that’s the way he wants to live. But footballers, the amount of money they get, they get that money to be dedicated to their profession, to make sure that they set a good example to young kids who want to be footballers.

"I’ve got no time for players acting stupid and getting drunk, I can’t have it. That stuff has every right to be in the newspapers. Young kids looking up at him, an up and coming footballer and then they see that. I can’t have it.”

(Image: Twitter @brionyking0913)

Pictures of Grealish apparently lying drunk and unconscious in the middle of a road in Tenerife surfaced last week.

And that is on the back of pictures two months ago which saw the 19-year-old inhaling ‘hippy crack’ – a legal high.

The Mirror reported at the weekend that the club have an idea of partnering him up with an older first-teamer like Fabian Delph as a mentor to guide him.

The idea is for the older statesman to keep a watchful eye on the youngster and try to steer him clear of potential pitfalls.

Delph is a candidate, but plans are on hold because Manchester City are still keen on signing him

.

The other candidates are keepers Shay Given and Brad Guzan.

The paper indicates that Villa don’t want to be too heavy-handed with their starlet but nor do they want him to squander the talent that has seen him at the centre of an international tug-of-war.

The young midfielder is elgibile for both England and the Republic Of Ireland but has so far not yet made up his mind where his allegiance lies.