Marseille striker Neal Maupay has admitted he deliberately made life difficult for Graham Potter at Brighton and Hove Albion, but the pair ended up enjoying a great relationship despite it.
[L’Equipe cover comments](https://www.lequipe.fr/) from the striker today in which he looks back at his career to date and his time at clubs like Brighton and Brentford.
The 28-year-old currently finds himself playing back in France with Marseille on loan from Everton after spending seven years in England with Brentford, Brighton and Everton.
He joined the former in 2017 and impressed in the Championship before making the move up to the Premier League with Brighton in a €15.56m deal in August 2019.
The goals didn’t come as easily for him with the Seagulls as they did with Brentford, with him managing just 27 goals and seven assists in 109 games for the club over a three-year period.
He joined them at a time of rapid expansion, which meant working alongside Graham Potter, with 108 of his games for the club coming under the English coach.
And Maupay reveals he made life difficult for his former coach, but that ended up forging a strong relationship between the pair.
“He (Potter) arrived at Brighton for his first experience in the Premier League and, straight away, he called me to ask me to come and play for him,” the striker said.
“We clicked on a human level because he is a great guy. But I was still young and sometimes I could be a bit stubborn in training.
“I liked to tease him, nothing mean I did the opposite of what he asked me during the session, I complained because I wasn’t starting the match the following weekend.
“He would take me into his office every day, he would scratch his head like this (he mimes the gesture), breathing: “Neal, pfff…” Gradually, we created this relationship, we became very close. We grew up together.”