Manchester City: Fans frustrated by Pep Guardiola’s praise of Phil Foden

Phil Foden has yet to break through and cement a place in Pep Guardiola’s starting 11 at Manchester City. He’s played just 10 minutes in the Premier League this season and there is a debate about whether he should seek time out on loan or not, with some pundits, including Michael Owen, backing the option.

Guardiola has heaped praise on the Stockport-born 19-year-old, even saying he’s the ‘most talented’ player he’s ever seen. So some are asking why he’s not given more opportunities to start for his boyhood club.

His recent form for the England U21s is impressive, scoring once, earning a Man of the Match and having a pass completion of 88.8% in an otherwise disappointing European Championships campaign last summer.

Man City news aggregator Man City Xtra posted quotes from The Sun’s serialisation of the book ‘Pep’s City — the Making of a Superteam’, and they made it clear Foden won’t be sold to anyone at any price.

Guardiola said: “We didn’t give Foden a new contract by accident. He is the only player that can’t be sold under any circumstances. Not even for €500m. Phil’s going nowhere – Phil IS City. We won’t be signing anyone else for that position.” Fans then leaped into the replies to express their annoyance that Guardiola isn’t playing Foden despite rating him so highly.

🗣️ Pep Guardiola on @PhilFoden:

“We didn’t give Foden a new contract by accident. He is the only player that can’t be sold under any circumstances. Not even for €500m.

Phil’s going nowhere – Phil IS City. We won’t be signing anyone else for that position…”#MCFC pic.twitter.com/F5ol1Eid3f

— Man City Xtra (@City_Xtra) October 9, 2019

You can see some of their reactions to the tweet below:

I hate it when he says things like this only to not play him🙄

— Luke Ravetto (@luke_ravetto) October 9, 2019

But he’s still not coming on in place of Gundogan for the last 2 minutes. Hopefully he’ll get a chance soon.

— Grstreble (@grstreble) October 9, 2019