Irregular football watchers must be puzzled by the hype over Jack Grealish

Presumably there are still people who only watch televised football when there are World Cup or European Championship finals taking place.

I was reminded of these folk during England's Group D clash with Scotland last Friday as the excitement about Jack Grealish's possible introduction from the bench reached fever pitch among the ITV pundits.

Lee Dixon wanted Grealish on the pitch. So badly. As a Scotsman, Ally McCoist was terrified of the Aston Villa dynamo coming on.

Ian Wright had been calling for Gareth Southgate to make the substitution since midway through the pre-match anthems. And the Grealish hype was even affecting Roy Keane, who appeared to be on the brink of muttering "he's actually not a bad player" – giddy hyperbole from the glowering Irishman.

For viewers who hadn't been following Grealish's rise over the past few years, this must have been like the build-up to the introduction of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs or the first sighting of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park.

What must they have been expecting? Would the England backroom staff wheel a specially-designed mobile cage down the touchline, with trained handlers in attendance, to release this mythical, defence-crushing monster who can make even a jovial, twinkle-eyed raconteur like McCoist turn deadly serious.

Instead, up pops some apple-cheeked lad with a haircut from the 1990s and a dribbling style from the 1950s whose main contribution is to get kicked to the floor every three or four minutes.

Those biennial football watchers must be wondering why Southgate has wasted a place in his squad on this Grealish chancer when he could have picked a back-up holding midfielder or – oh, go on then – another right-back.

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