Pep Guardiola tells £100m man Jack Grealish to ignore public opinion

Pep Guardiola has told Jack Grealish to ignore public opinion as Manchester City’s £100million record signing gears up for his comeback.

Grealish has missed four games with a shin injury, but is set to play in the FA Cup fifth round tonight at Peterborough.

The England man has three goals and three assists since joining from Aston Villa and accepts he will be judged on those statistics. But Guardiola is adamant the 26-year-old must block out any criticism.

‘The statistics are better or similar to Aston Villa in terms of ball contact,’ City’s manager claimed. ‘We didn’t buy him to score 45 goals. He doesn’t have that quality — he has another one.

‘Players today play for the statistics, but this is the biggest mistake they can do.’

New signings often take time to settle under Guardiola, but he believes Grealish has shown enough.

‘Jack is playing well, if he wasn’t I would tell him,’ he said.