Karren Brady: Jack Grealish following David Beckham into fashion with Gucci deal… I hope he doesn’t get the tattoos too

GUCCI have spotted something about Jack Grealish that has not always been obvious to Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola or England manager  Gareth Southgate.

The fashion house, at least, are said to want him to make regular appearances in their clothes.

They are also prepared to pay him a seven-figure sum to do so.

That sum, I presume, will not be in the same league as the £100million that City paid Aston Villa for his services but will certainly help him put an awful lot of petrol in his cars.

Whether Gucci have chosen well we may shortly discover but don’t expect him to appear in long trousers.

He is well known for his style of shorts with his socks down, revealing what are now known as Jack’s Calves, body parts which set Brummie and Mancunian girls squealing.

A bulging calf may not be everyone’s choice of a favourite bulge but it might catch on.

After all, when David Beckham first showed off the tattoo of a flying thing across the back of his neck, many of us recoiled in disgust.

And look where that got him. And how millions of lads and lasses — never mind middle-aged men and women who ought to know better — followed.

Today, tattoo parlours rival Turkish barbers as soaring industries.

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You may have guessed  I agree with Harry Kane’s dad that tattoos grow ugly and indistinct on the aged.

As for tatt-smothered Beckham, he’s only a multi-millionaire, a football club owner in Miami, an English icon, a world-famous star and husband of a beautiful former Spice Girl. Not bad at all.

So, I wonder why he has not been knighted?

Whether those tattoos have anything to do with it? I have no doubt tattoo parlour owners would rate him an earldom at least but how about the honours committee?

Grealish has barely put a foot along that course yet. He’s a brilliant ball-player who provokes defenders to try to knock his little shin pads into the back row of the stands.

Grealish has barely put a foot along that course yet. He’s a brilliant ball-player who provokes defenders to try to knock his little shin pads into the back row of the stands.

Generally, he smiles afterwards — although he has been known to face up to the assailant.

Whether he moves up the superstar league might well depend on his father, Kevin, who also acts as his agent.

But the Grealish family understands very well that he needs City to win trophies and for him to have some heroics for England to graduate there.

Grealish certainly does not need the Gucci cheques. It’s said he’s on £200,000 a week and apparently no spendthrift, although he likes fast cars.

I suppose the real point of all this is that he, like Beckham, has pizazz.

He also needs driving ambition to be something post-football.

It used to be that ex-players became pub landlords or sports shop owners after retiring.

Today, the best earn enough to own those pubs and rows of shops.

Beckham in particular changed that. Whether driven from inside or by his grimly determined fashionista wife, he joined a different kind of elite: the self-made businessman.

He did fashion on the way, from tight underpants to dinner suits, and others including Hector Bellerin, Marcus Rashford, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo, are on a similar course whether or not they sport tattoos.

Grealish doesn’t brandish any. I hope his dad gave the same advice as Kane’s.

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