JACK GREALISH has revealed he shut down Erling Haaland with a brutally witty response after the striker told him not to go out partying.
The pair have become good pals since Haaland joined Manchester City last summer.
1Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland have become good pals since the striker arrivedCredit: AP
They hit it off during pre-season and get on well on and off the pitch, with Haaland breaking the Premier League goalscoring record in his debut season.
Grealish gave an insight into how the Norwegian has been able to be so successful, claiming he has never seen a player with his mindset.
But the England star is also able to joke around with Haaland and revealed he put him in his place when he warned against partying.
Grealish told the Daily Mail: “Everyone is different, aren’t they? Look at Erling. He is the best professional I have ever seen.
“His mindset is something you won’t see again. He does everything. Recovers. In the gym. Ten hours of treatment a day. Ice baths. Diet. That’s why he is what he is. But I swear I couldn’t be like that.
“We have a great friendship but he will point at me after a game and say, ‘Hey, don’t you go out tonight partying’. I just tell him to shut up and go and sit in his ice bath. But that’s us. Two different people doing well in our own way.
“I am not as successful as him. He has scored more goals this season than I have in my whole career. But if he did what I occasionally did he would be like, ‘F***ing hell I feel terrible today’.”
Grealish has been in superb form for City this season after a tough first campaign and he has five goals and 11 assists in all competitions.
He recently spoke about the criticism he has received from pundits and called out Graeme Souness in light of his retirement.
Grealish said: “The way some of the TV pundits talk I can’t actually catch my breath sometimes. It’s as if they never played bad themselves.
“Graeme was an unbelievable player. But he used to say I held on to the ball too long.
“I was like, ‘Mate, I play for Aston Villa’. A lot of the time we didn’t have the ball so when we did the manager told me to keep it.
“It’s the same here. Everyone sees Pep [Guardiola] as a tiki-taka manager, but before the Bayern Munich game away in the Champions League he said, ‘You know what having balls is? It’s about being the one to keep the ball, to calm the game down’.
“So you do that and you get criticised. It’s tricky.”
