Pep Guardiola had sometime last week set tongues working excitedly after he, on seeing a performance by Philip Foden for Manchester City U-17 team, reacted with ‘it has been sometime since I saw anything like this’. Then he made the excitement rise to a crescendo when he promised the young midfielder of more roles in future. Why the excitement?
Let us start from the very beginning before we knew of the manager, Guardiola.
Lionel Messi in his own right had always been a shining star at Barcelona but when the Camp Nou welcomed Pep in 2008, he spotted more talent in Messi that was not showing while he played traditionally from the flank. He pulled the Argentine into the middle of the pitch and as we know the rest of the history (awards, broken records and so on). He further showed faith in the trio of Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets, clearing every other player (including a promising Yaya Toure) from the starting line up to give them the arena and no one can say he could have done better with other group of players.
His faith in players has been remarkable.
Overlooking his short stint at Bayern Munich, his arrival at Manchester City saw him practically build the whole team around Kevin De Bruyne. We now have the Belgian in the top hierarchy of players. Look at Gabriel Jesus, Pep handpicked the Brazilian from the clouds and put him in our faces.
It is no wonder that when Guardiola turned his attention to the U-17 World Cup golden ball winner Philip Foden and promised him some time together, the media won’t be at rest due to anticipation.
What magic can the Spaniard pull from England’s Foden? Time.
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