Jack Grealish has played alongside some impressive names since joining Manchester City and has hailed Bernardo Silva as his finest team-mate ahead of the likes of Kevin De Bruyne
Jack Grealish has named Manchester City team-mate Bernardo Silva as the best player he’s played alongside.
The Englishman moved to the Etihad last summer having spent his career at Aston Villa. Pep Guardiola’s star-studded squad has allowed Grealish to rub shoulders with the likes of Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan, Joao Cancelo and Kevin De Bruyne.
Belgian star De Bruyne is renowned as one of the world’s finest and has won successive PFA Player of the Year awards in recent years. Yet despite that, Grealish has named Bernardo as the man who’s “changed the way I see football”, citing a story about the Portuguese star last term.
He told reporters this week: “Technically, I’m better. It is so much more difficult than I thought. One of the best players I’ve played with – and he’s changed the way I see football – is Bernardo Silva. Out of everyone I’ve played with, he is probably the best. The way his brain works is crazy.
“He will go and get the ball off the keeper and dribble with it from the six yard box. I remember one game last season: the manager told Bernardo to come get the ball off Ederson. So Ederson puts the ball down, gives it to Bernardo who goes off on his little dribble around.
“I was like ‘what the f*** does this c*** think he is doing? He thinks it’s school football’. It was unbelievable.”
Bernardo’s performances have, at times, gone under the radar such is the brilliance of De Bruyne – and now Haaland. The playmaker has been recognised for his brilliance internally though, previously claiming the club’s Player of the Year award in 2019 when they won the domestic treble.
The former Monaco man, who moved to Manchester in 2017, has been linked with the exit door for several summers now. Barcelona have been among those keen but Pep Guardiola has been vocal in his desire to keep the 28-year-old.
Grealish has also addressed comments he made about Miguel Almiron in the aftermath of last season’s title victory. He mocked the Newcastle star, who has been one of the league’s outstanding performers this term, with the England star confessing he regrets his comments.
“That was one thing I regret,” Grealish admitted. “He said something about me in the interview the other day when he wished me the best. I thought ‘what a guy’ because if somebody had said that about me, I’d have probably been the other way and been like ‘f*** it’.
“When I look back on that, that was just one thing that was stupid of me to say. I didn’t realise it was a video to go out, I thought it was just private.”