Joleon Lescott sheds light on who was responsible for the infamous car tweet that sparked backlash

Joleon Lescott has surprisingly admitted that Jack Grealish was partly responsible for his infamous car tweet during Aston Villa's disastrous relegation campaign. Signed in 2015, Lescott was one of 11 new faces as Villa looked to refresh the squad – but the season proved hopelessly miserable.

The Villans, who started the season with Tim Sherwood in charge and also sacked Remi Garde, accumulated just 17 points as the club dropped out of the top flight after 28 years. After winning the Premier League with Manchester City two years earlier, Lescott made 30 league appearances as Villa slumped to 20th place.

His dreadful spell at Villa Park reached a new low when Lescott unwittingly posted a photo of a luxury Mercedes straight after a crushing 6-0 defeat to Liverpool on Valentine's Day in 2016. Although he claims Being a pocket tweet while driving, Lescott revealed that current City winger Grealish has offered to take some responsibility for the incident.

“We need to get Jack back [Grealish] “I'm going to do a podcast and tell them it was my fault,” Lesoctt said on The Rest is Football podcast. “I'm thinking it's not that deep, Jack, to be honest.

“Now everyone tweets after games and thanks the fans and stuff, I've never done that anyway, win, lose or draw. The car was a bit crazy but how did it happen , is that Jack sent it to me and. [Micah Richards] I was driving home and then my phone blew up and I was like, “What’s happening? I'm driving so I don't know what happened.

“My mom said to me, ‘You don’t even have that car.’ I know, it’s not mine,” Lescott continued. “[Grealish] Googled a photo of the car he wanted. My mom told me to post a picture of my real car and I was like, “No, Mom! Looks 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 left it. »

In his defense, Lescott explained: “I had to check Twitter [after the game] but history suggests I've never tweeted after games, so doing that is a bit crazy. After putting my phone away it just downloaded it. I was like, “What’s going on? »

Despite his Villa teammate Micah Richards begging Lescott to claim he had been hacked, the message remained on his profile. It was said that Grealish sent him the image because of his car rental side business.

It was not the first time Lescott had felt the wrath of the Villa faithful. An FA Cup defeat to Wycombe led to fans banging on the dugout while he was on the bench. The centre-back had already plotted an exit route to the LA Galaxy, but his reaction to fan backlash during a midweek match against Crystal Palace cost Lescott his move to MLS.

“We arrive at [Palace] game, [Richards] “I was on the bench, I’m starting and I’m captain,” Lescott said. “When they read my name, everyone booed. I don't think I've ever been so angry. I was angry.

“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 were down about 12 points on the bounce. We were playing Crystal Palace who had the best away record at the time We win 1-0 and I don't even score I celebrated, I was furious that it had come to this and the fans took it like I did. 'was the only person to put us in the situation.

“LA called the next day and Villa said we were going to need fees, we think we can stay up. I was like 'What?!' I ended up staying, otherwise I would have had to make a fuss and force myself out. I wasn't doing that, it was done four days ago, I ended up staying at Villa for the rest of the day. season. [LA] signed someone else. I was angry.”