England star Jack Grealish has angrily tweeted his thoughts on the penalty controversy, which has led some to accuse him of having “thrown Southgate under the bus” in a Twitter exchange.<\/p>\n
The Aston Villa talisman has reacted furiously to Roy Keane\u2019s comments and claims he wanted to take the penalty that eventually fell on 19-year-old Bukayo Saka’s shoulders.<\/p>\n
Bukayo Saka missed from the spot kick, which led many to question why so much pressure was put on the 19-year-old youngster’s frail shoulders.<\/p>\n
And former Manchester United captain Roy Keane had reactively commented: “If you’re Sterling or Grealish, you cannot sit there and have a young kid go up for a penalty ahead of you.”<\/p>\n
This comment definitely didn’t sit well with Grealish, who tweeted out in anger: “I said I wanted to take one!!!! The gaffer has made so many right decisions through this tournament and he did tonight! But I won\u2019t have people say that I didn\u2019t want to take a peno when I said I will\u2026”<\/p>\n
While some England fans have flocked to Grealish\u2019s defence for speaking up, others have opted to criticize him for this outburst.<\/p>\n
One disgruntled fan tweeted: “Just threw Southgate under the bus lol.<\/p>\n
“What was he saving you for Jack? Why is a 19-year-old who has never taken a penalty going before you or anyone else for that matter?\u201d<\/p>\n
And another added: “This was a very unnecessary tweet from him. Threw his manager under the bus and is probably going to be benched at the next tournament because of it.”<\/p>\n
Grealish claims that he put himself forward for a penalty, and is undeserving of the harsh criticism of Keane.<\/p>\n
Keane told ITV:\u00a0“You cannot let a shy 19-year-old go up in front of you. They have a lot more experience, Sterling has won trophies, they had to get in front of the young kid and stand up.”<\/p>\n
Grealish only made a few appearances at this year’s Euros, with many criticising Southgate for repeatedly benching him, and this could be one way the pent-up frustration that had been building up throughout the tournament is finally seeping out, understandably, especially after being prodded and prompted by the pundit\u2019s prickly comments.<\/p>\n
Saka was clearly distraught and disconsolate after his spot-kick miss and had to be consoled by his manager and team-mates who rallied together to help ease his misery.<\/p>\n
The other two players to miss their spotkicks were Manchester United signee-to-be Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, who have, together with Saka, all since been the targets of vile racist abuse from online trolls.<\/p>\n
However, many have leapt to Saka’s defence and said he should never have been put under that much pressure.<\/p>\n
Gareth Southgate has previously defended his decision to assign responsibility to the young lads and accepts the fault lies with him.<\/p>\n
The England boss said: “I decided on the penalty takers based on what we’ve done in training.<\/p>\n
“Nobody is on their own. That’s my call and it totally rests on me.<\/p>\n
“They were the best takers we had left on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
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