Celtic made a late move to sign Phil Foden on loan this summer – but Manchester City do not want him to go anywhere.
Pep Guardiola has come across some immensely talented youngsters in his time so it speaks volumes that Phil Foden’s performance against Manchester United in the International Champions Cup left the Catalan scrambling around for adjectives capable of doing the youngster justice.
“I don’t have words – I would like to have the right words to describe what I saw,” Guardiola said in quotes reported by The Telegraph, the 17-year-old’s talent enough to distract from City’s 2-0 defeat against their local rivals.
“You are the lucky guys who saw the first game, for the first team for Manchester City, of this guy.
“It’s a long time since I saw something like this. His performance was another level. He’s 17 years old, he’s a City player, he grew up in the academy, he loves the club, he’s a City fan and for us he’s a gift.”
‘Another level’
No wonder, then, that Guardiola is not the only manager to have been left smitten by Foden’s mesmeric debut performance. According to TEAMtalk, Scottish Champions Celtic were so determined to take the Stockport-born midfielder on loan that they would have even paid a £1.5 million fee.
The report adds that City did consider Celtic’s offer, perhaps due to the great strides made by Patrick Roberts during an 18-month loan spell at Parkhead, before Guardiola decided he wanted to keep Foden in and around the first-team.
A silky playmaker with a wand of a left-boot, Foden’s class and composure is clear to see and it is difficult not to draw immediate comparisons with a certain David Silva. Though, with 15 goals in 31 games for City’s Under-18s last season, the local lad clearly has end product to match.
Time will tell whether Foden would have been better off being given an opportunity to fight for regular first-team football at Celtic, however. Because, as high as Guardiola rates him, Foden is yet to play a minute of City’s first four Premier League games this season.
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