Ex-Aston Villa striker compares Man City’s £100m-rated Jack Grealish and £25m Bristol City star

Andi Weimann has become the most recent Bristol City player to compare teenage sensation Alex Scott to Manchester City and England midfielder Jack Grealish.

Kal Naismith likened the 19-year-old to the £100million man earlier this month before Scott himself admitted how he bases his game off the ex-Aston Villa skipper.

The two slick dribblers could go head to head on Tuesday night as the Citizens travel to BS3 in the fifth round of the FA Cup, as both teams go in search of a place in the last eight.

Scott’s smooth and effortless playing style has seen him earn the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, in reference to the number seven’s home town.

Despite the pair's standout talent, it was something else that Weimann first spoke about as the most evident similarity between the two. “The most obvious one is how they wear their socks!” He said.

“I think the way Alex glides over the pitch, I can see why people compare him to Jack. Alex, we all know how good he is for his age, how much we rate him in the dressing room, and how much the club rate him. I think he’s now starting to get more attention from outside of the club as well, which he deserves because of what he's been doing.

“He's obviously got a long way to go to get to where Jack Grealish is, but he's got a really really bright future ahead of him, and we’ll see where he ends up.”

Weimann was recently made club captain following Dan Bentley’s departure to Wolverhampton Wanderers in January but has had to settle for a place among the substitutes during City’s ongoing 12-match unbeaten run.

With Anis Mehmeti and Harry Cornick cup-tied for the clash, the veteran forward may be introduced in the forward line. But, even if Weimann doesn’t feature, he is still keen to get his hands on an opposition shirt post-match.

When questioned on who he wants to swap shirts with to remember the occasion, and whether he would frame it, he replied: “I can't frame it because I've asked Jack Grealish to swap already, but it’s for my son. He’s asked me, so I’ll try and get that signed for my son and hopefully swap with Jack.”

Weimann’s son is an avid football sticker collector, and the Austrian admitted that he can probably name more Man City players than Bristol City.

“I hope he's a Bristol city fan! Yeah, he's a Bristol, city fan. I came here when he was three years old so he hasn’t really known much else but he’s starting to get really into football now.”

Weimann and Grealish go back several years, the duo played together at Villa when Grealish was a teenager, and the forward reflected on his first impressions of the 27-year-old.

“In my last season at Aston Villa, I played with him a few times - that’s when he started coming through. In training, you could see he was really good. I think he trained with us from 15 or 16 (years old) and you could tell he was a really really good footballer. The way he’s carried on progressing and where he is now is amazing.

“He has everything, you see it now, he’s not afraid to express himself, you can see in training how he runs past people, how he dribbles past people, that’s when you think yeah he’s going to be good, he’s decent, and then just how he’s progressed. I played with him for 10 games or so so I didn’t play with him that much.

“How he progressed at Villa, became captain there and rose through the ranks and got his £100 million move to Man City. For Pep Guardiola, one of the best managers in the world, to want to spend that much money on him shows how good he is and what he thinks of him. That shows you all you need to know really.”