Thursday 26 November 2015 17:48, UK
Paul Merson says he would like to sit down with Jack Grealish after the Aston Villa midfielder breached the club's discipline.
Grealish will not be involved in Villa's vital Premier League match against Watford on Saturday after being demoted to the club's development squad indefinitely.
The 20-year-old was pictured in a national newspaper on two nights out at the weekend - following the 4-0 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park - and former Villa player Merson wants to sit down with him and remind him a footballer's career is short.
Merson said on Sky Sports News HQ: "The lad needs to sit down with someone. I think he needs to sit down with someone who has been in that position. I'd like to sit down with him for an hour.
"He's got unbelievable talent. He's a good player, but it soon goes. It's the best job in the world, playing football, and someone needs to sit him down and say: 'This goes very quickly.'
"George [Graham, former Arsenal manager] used to sit down with me when I was 19, 20, when I was going out, and he'd say: 'It's quick, this career.'
"But you sit there and think: 'Really? I'm 19, 20, I go out, I'm a professional footballer. I look like Brad Pitt,' and you do when you're a professional footballer, you look like Brad Pitt.
"You go out, everybody is around you, but when you finish you do not look like Brad Pitt.
"I'd love to sit down with him for an hour, and go through my experience. I would say to him: 'For the next 10 years of your life give it everything, you've got to grasp hold of this.'
"I'll get him back on the straight and narrow."
I'd love to sit down with him for an hour, and go through my experience.
Grealish did not travel with the team back from Merseyside at the weekend but manager Remi Garde is adamant he does not have a problem with that.
Garde said: "It's not unusual for a player to ask to stay in the city of the team you have played in."
But Merson says the manager is partly to blame for the situation, and should have made every player go back on the club coach.
Villa host Watford on Saturday with the Midlands side bottom of the Premier League having gained just five points in 13 games.
Merson said: "Playing in front of the Holte End on a Saturday, how would you not want that? It's their cup final, they have to win, it's their ultimate game, they have to win. It's their biggest game in, I would say, five years.
"I half blame the manager. They just got ripped 4-0, and I've spoken to a few Everton fans who say it's the worst team they've seen there for a long, long time.
"If you're the manager, he's not staying, he's getting on the coach and he's coming home as punishment.
"He should have been back on that coach. I had it loads of times where I planned to go out after a match, and all of a sudden you lose and you're on the coach, and the manager says: 'You spoil my weekend, I'll spoil yours.'"
