Phil Foden : Kissing The Manchester City Badge

Young Manchester City player Phil Foden sits on the edge of greatness, with his whole future before him.

Sometimes it seems as though the media will search for any stick they can to try and beat Manchester City and by association their manager, Pep Guardiola. One of these sticks is all about youth development and specifically Phil Foden. At times it seems the press are even being assisted in this endeavour by the FA!

Cards on the table – if you were a young footballer on the cusp of your career and the worlds best manager was happily eulogising over you, would you be looking to leave? If you add to the equation you are receiving these accolades at your boyhood club – the one you and your family support, does that make you anymore likely to want to go?

The pundits and the media suggest a lack of game time for Phil Foden at THE BEST CLUB IN EUROPE will lead him to go elsewhere. Indeed they implore him to go and find another club for the sake of his career. This deliberately overlooks two things.

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Firstly, he is getting game time and has done so since he was aged 17. The real question is would a player like Mason Mount get anymore at City given our squad? The answer is uncomfortable for the FA and the media because it is that Mount would be unlikely to be good enough to feature at all for us.

Secondly, it ignores the argument about age completely. Regular game time at an early age does not guarantee any kind of stellar career – look at Macheda or David Bentley.

This season Foden will turn 20. If we look at the season where David Beckham, arguably the most famous footballer in the modern era, also turned 20 what does that show us?

Well back in 1994/95 Beckham was 19 and became 20 in the May of 1995, just as Foden is 19 now and becomes 20 in May 2020.

Beckham in 1994/95 made a total of 4 Premier League appearances, only one of which was for 90 minutes. He played 1 FA Cup match and 1 Champions League game. A grand total of 6 matches, where incidentally he scored 1 goal and had 1 assist.

So it would seem the treatment of Foden by Guardiola is no different from the treatment of Beckham by Ferguson at the same age. Beckham’s breakthrough season came the following year – as will Foden’s with the departure of other players at City like David Silva.

So rather than vilify Guardiola, we should be applauding him for the careful development of Foden and the protection he is affording him to ensure he is in the best place to have the best career possible. Foden needs to bide his time, learn his craft and be ready to seize his moment because it will come very soon indeed.

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Until then Foden needs to be patient and as usual we fans all need to ignore the media and the pundits and put our trust in Pep.

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