Jack Grealish was partly responsible for Joleon Lescott’s infamous 2016 car tweet that angered Aston Villa fans, the former Aston Villa defender has revealed.
Lescott infuriated already-irate supporters after tweeting a photo of a £121,000 Mercedes following a 6-0 thrashing against Liverpool with no caption or context.
He then drew mockery for insisting his phone accidentally tweeted the picture from his pocket. Lescott apologised to fans after Villa’s ‘lack of commitment’ in the home drubbing, with the club bottom of the league.
The former defender has always maintained his stance but his telling of the incident now includes Manchester City winger Jack Grealish, who he claims shares some of the responsibility.
‘We need to get Jack [Grealish] on to clear this up because Jack says to me all the time, “I’m going to do a podcast and tell them it was my fault”,’ Lescott told The Rest is Football podcast. ‘I’m like it’s not that deep, Jack, to be honest.
Jolean Lescott has opened up on the events that led to his infamous 2016 car tweet which angered Aston Villa fans
The former defender revealed that then-Villa winger Jack Grealish was partly responsible
Lescott tweeted this photo of a Mercedes-AMG S 63 Coupe with an ‘on the road price’ starting at £121,690
‘Everyone tweets after games and thanks the fans and all that, I never did that anyway, win, lose or draw. The car was a bit wild but how it came about was Jack had sent it to me. Me and [Micah Richards] were driving home and then my phone was blowing off and I was like, “What’s going on?” I’m driving so I don’t know what’s happened.
‘My mom was like, “You don’t even have that car. I know, it’s not mine,” Lescott continued. ‘[Grealish] googled a picture of the car he wanted.
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‘My mom told me to post a picture of my real car and I was like, “No, Mom!’ It’ll look like I treated myself to a Rolls Royce – it doesn’t really work like that, I don’t think it’s going to go away so I just left it.”
‘I must have checked Twitter [after the game] but history would suggest I never tweeted after games so to do that is a bit wild. After I put my phone away, it just uploaded it. I was like, “What is going on?”‘
Richards gave a similar account earlier this year when he discussed the fallout on the podcast. The former defender revealed that Lescott used to have a car leasing company and would often ‘give us cars for good prices’.
The image of a vehicle that is well within a top Premier League footballer’s price range but far from that of regular supporters drew fury from fans online.
Lescott was earning close to £50,000 a week at Villa after signing from local rivals West Bromwich Albion. The tweet offered no caption or explanation.
Reactions on Twitter labelled his post ‘inappropriate’ and ‘disrespectful’ while West Brom fans revelled in their former player’s mistake, calling the 33-year-old ‘Agent Lescott’.
Villa were hammered 6-0 at home by Liverpool in February 2016 in a season which saw them relegated
Lescott attracted most of the fury from Villa supporters, who were dismayed by their team’s poor performances
‘We get to the [Palace] game, [Richards] was on the bench, I’m starting and I’m captain,’ Lescott added. ‘When they read out my name, everyone booed. I don’t think I’ve ever been that mad, ever. I was fuming.
‘In my head, I was like, “I’m going to prove to you today that I’m not the only reason we’re in this situation”. I think we’d lost like 12 on the bounce. We were playing Crystal Palace who had the best away record at the time. We win 1-0 and I score. I don’t even think I celebrated, I was fuming it had gone to that and the fans took it like I was the only person that put us in the situation.’
Villa’ sorry season ended in failure as they finished bottom of the league on only 17 points. Lescott spent just one season with the side before departing that summer for AEK Athens.
