Noel Whelan blasted a number of Aston Villa players and backroom staff afternews of Jack Grealish’s injury was leaked ahead of Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Leicester City.
David Ornstein of The Athletic revealed on Sunday that Matt Targett, Conor Hourihane, Neil Taylor, first-team performance analyst Scott Adey-Linforth and physio Rob Marshall all took Grealish out of their Fantasy Premier League teams, so rumours were floating on social media that the 25-year-old could miss the game against the Foxes.
Whelan criticised the “naivety” of the players and staff involved in the leak and believes they showed a “lack of professionalism”, telling Football Insider:
You don’t want your team being leaked, it’s a disadvantage when people see that and it’s leaked out before the game starts that key players aren’t playing.
It shows a lack of professionalism and naivety from people at the club doing that to feel they can do it and it’s not going to get out there. Now it’s out there, some serious chats need to be had with the manager and the people they trust in and around them.
There will be a repercussion from that, I’m sure. It’s just an unprofessional attitude to have.
It’s worth noting that Paul Merson picked up on Grealish potentially carrying a knock after Villa’s 0-0 draw with Brighton a week earlier, so he spotted something which ended up being true.
It’s also worth noting that Leicester still prepared their squad as if Grealish would be playing, naming Timothy Castagne at right-back and Ricardo Pereira ahead of him, so they didn’t even believe or hear the rumours beforehand.
Nevertheless, Dean Smith wasn’t happy with the news getting out and now Villa have banned their players from taking part in Fantasy Premier League.
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It’s not wise for players and staff to change their fantasy football teams using insider information, so Smith’s apparent anger is understandable and Whelan is right to call out those who were responsible.
Grealish is arguably Villa’s best player and the club clearly wanted to keep his absence under wraps before the game, but will players really be punished for being exposed by a Twitter bot?
