A Premier League star has now revealed how Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola made him feel "loved".
Despite getting off to a slow start to life at the Etihad, Jack Grealish spoke about how his manager kept showing faith in him and highlighted how the Spaniard's actions said more than words could have.
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"I'm a big confidence player, I want to feel loved. I came back from the World Cup and my first game was against Leeds and I should have scored at least two goals in the first half and at half-time, I was dwelling on that," Grealish said on City's podcast via GOAL.
"But in the second half, I made two assists for Erling. A week later, I was on the bench at Chelsea, as me and Riyad [Mahrez] came on at the same time and I got another assist for his goal. After that, I just seemed to get some more goal involvement."
The 28-year-old made 50 appearances for City last season, accumulating five goals and 11 assists.
"I felt I was playing well in myself, too, and the manager was picking me in the big games like for Arsenal in the FA Cup and Arsenal in the Premier League, Tottenham and so on. I was feeling the love of Pep - not because he'd said so, but because he was playing me in all those big games," the winger added.
"It's okay, the manager going; 'You're so important to the team, Jack' - then not picking you. Then you'd think; 'Yeah, you're just saying that'. Pep didn't say anything at all, but he picked me for the big games, and that said everything."
Because the England international had more of a free role while playing for Villa, it turned out to be an adjustment to try and fit in to Guardiola's style of play.
Grealish revealed that he had previously been on the receiving end of a "grilling" by the City boss.
"Listen, I've had grillings off Pep going; 'What you doing in there?', 'Get back out here!', 'Stick to the game plan'.
"But you can't fault him. Look at his CV, he's won everything."
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The winger added that with all the faith Guardiola had in him, Grealish felt that the only way to repay him was to put in good performances.
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