We also changed the academy system about 10 years ago, and you are seeing the fruits of that now - people such as Foden and Mount were just starting their journey then, and they have been brought up with the kind of football they are playing now, for club and country. That's where English football has really won out as a result of foreign managers and players coming in from the mid-1990s onwards. That type of player - the technician, really - has really flourished because of a change in playing style. It was a long wait, but we have moved on.

As such, this was always going to be a big season for Foden. But, as he prepares for another meeting with Liverpool on Saturday lunchtime, he does so as one of Guardiola’s go-to men alongside Rodri and Erling Haaland. He has the possessed, appealingly arrogant look of a player who knows he is different and out to catapult himself into that rarefied sphere that always seemed his calling.Wall prints and custom sizing. Looking for something larger than life? We offer Phil Foden photos up to 90x60 inches in size, as well as full-sized wall prints. Create a feature wall in your home or workplace!

For a period, with upheaval behind the scenes around his representation and outside distractions aplenty, City harboured concerns about a loss of focus but the Foden who has emerged this season is a different beast and there is excitement about what the next 12 to 18 months could bring. With three goals in five league starts against Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp knows only too well what a threat Foden routinely presents to his team. Pep Guardiola has given Phil Foden only a substitute’s role in many of their biggest games. Photograph: Dave Thompson/AP As I describe in my book, it is working, everywhere. You can see the talent that is out there in England shirts, right through the age groups up to the senior side, and it is going to keep on coming. The expectation in England used to be for me to dictate play for 90 minutes, but it was never about doing that, and it still isn't. Look at Kevin de Bruyne now - you might not see him all game but then he sets up a goal with an unbelievable pass that no-one else can see, let alone execute it. In 235 outings for City Foden’s tally is 65, so a rise in the finishing ratio would aid his case. He will hope to start doing so on Saturday, when Guardiola’s leaders welcome Klopp’s second-placed Liverpool.

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When Silva ended a glittering decade at City he was rated by many as the club’s greatest footballer. Three years later De Bruyne’s serial A-list displays allow a similar claim. In January 2020, before Silva’s departure that summer, Guardiola said: “We trust Phil. If we didn’t believe in him we might go to the market to replace David, but we have Phil.” In truth, Puyol was not the only illustrious player of past Barcelona association to show an interest in Foden’s progress. Pep Guardiola’s presence at City has always ensured a degree of fascination in Catalonia at events unfolding in east Manchester and in the past Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano are thought to have idly asked their friend and compatriot Sergio Aguero what “that kid Foden” is like. Midfielder for both Manchester City and the England national team, Phil Foden has become synonymous with both teams' recent successes at home and abroad, and at Sport Photo Gallery, we're documenting the young star's rise to footballing fame. I was a kind of a number 10 in my final season with Tottenham - the one when Clive Allen scored 49 goals - but people still talked about what I couldn't do as much as what I could. It was only when I went to Monaco in 1987 that suddenly I was at a place where what I did was seen as the most important position, because I could elevate the team.