“What a star!” – Jack Grealish praised by locals following unexpected appearance and heartfelt gesture at lowkey social club | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Jack Grealish has received plenty of praise from locals following an expected appearance at a social club over the weekend.

The England international wasted no time in making the most of Manchester City’s allocated time off for its first-team stars as the Premier League champions enter into the final period of an unusually quiet business end to a season.

An early exit from the Carabao Cup and UEFA Champions League means that City can now focus their entire attentions on securing a top-four place in the Premier League as well as pursuing a third FA Cup title under Pep Guardiola.

And with that has come a rare string of midweeks between now and the end of the campaign, allowing for Manchester City’s stars to be granted more time off to rest and recuperate before returning to training ground preparations for their upcoming matches.

For Jack Grealish, that led the Manchester City forward to the North-East of England after the club’s 3-1 comeback win over Plymouth Argyle on Saturday evening to catch-up with a close friend.

According to a new report from MailOnline, Grealish paid £500 towards the drinks tab for everyone at the North Biddick Social Club in Washington, Tyne & Wear on Sunday evening visiting his friend Richard Logan – the brother of Everton and England’s Jordan Pickford.

It is claimed that after word spread that the Manchester City forward was in town, the club ‘quickly filled’ prompting Grealish’s exit but only after the England star spent time ‘chatting to locals, posing for pictures and paying for their drinks’.

One local told the newspaper, “Jack was a total gentleman and £500 is enough to keep the whole bar in pints for a good few hours. What a star he was, he can come back any time.”

Another local, who was in the club at the time as the Manchester City forward, said, “He was with a couple of friends who live nearby and I think they just fancied a quiet pint in a place where Jack wasn’t going to get any hassle.

“Word spread very quickly though and people started to arrive from all over to see him, it’s such an unexpected place to see a big football star. He was a really, really nice guy. Nothing was too much trouble for him, he sat, chatted with locals, and was happy to pose for pictures.

“But when he paid for everyone’s drinks that was just amazing, he didn’t need to do it but he did and it showed a lot of class and generosity. He’ll definitely be welcome back if he ever wants to come down again.”

For now it remains unknown as to when Manchester City’s players will return to first-team training this week ahead of their Premier League encounter with Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon.

Pep Guardiola will provide an update on the fitness of his squad and the week as a whole when he faces the media during his pre-match press conference duties on Friday afternoon from the City Football Academy.

City will be desperate to claim all three points at the City Ground to leapfrog Nuno Espirito Santos’ side into third-place in the Premier League table, piling on the pressure on Arsenal and the second-place position behind runaway leaders Liverpool.