“He deserves to play, I want to give him minutes. Every time I don’t play him I’m in front of him saying sorry.”
Whenever Pep Guardiola was asked about Phil Foden before the midfielder became a Manchester City regular, he made it clear that he too would love to see more of the youngster in his side. He just didn’t have the space.
“We have Kevin De Bruyne there, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, Ilkay Gundogan. I’m so sorry. I know the best way to grow up is to play minutes, but he’s so young.
“I don’t know how many players that age have played more minutes in the recent past, but he’s going to be an incredible player for us in the future. We trust in him a lot, but it is what it is.”
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That particular review of the Phil Foden conundrum that had everyone talking back in 2019 came after a 2-0 Champions League victory over Dinamo Zagreb in which the then-19-year-old had come on in injury time with the game already won. The Manchester press pack, among whom it was a running joke that Foden was the most talked-about substitute ever known, were again asking what the youngster’s future held. Guardiola, not for the first time, was pleading for patience from all concerned.
City had turned down two bids from Parma to loan Foden, while Leeds United were also following goings-on on the Etihad Stadium bench. But Guardiola insisted that the best place for Foden was at City, even if he wasn’t playing.
Wind the clock forward three years and it is arguable that the City manager has been proved right. Foden is now a central figure in the first-team lineup, an England regular and owner of four Premier League winner’s medals. He was also a starter in the club’s sole Champions League final appearance to date. Not bad for a 22-year-old.
While some will still suggest that Guardiola played things too cautiously with the teenage Foden, there’s a parallel to be drawn with Bukayo Saka’s current plight at Arsenal. The two England stars each made their 100th Premier League appearance last weekend despite Foden having had an earlier and far more heralded start than Saka to his league career. And Saka has over 2,000 minutes of action on Foden already, even though he is 15 months the City man’s younger.
To quote Guardiola “the best way to grow up is to play minutes,” and to an extent, Saka has had to mature more quickly, even without taking his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final and the backlash that followed into account.
On the one hand Saka’s regular involvement shows Arsenal’s desperation to get him into the side at an underwhelming time in the club’s recent history. Mikel Arteta’s new era at the Emirates has been part-planned, part-forced, with a focus on youth being as much a natural consequence of not fighting for big trophies as it is a deliberate act to freshen up the Gunners’ squad. That ability to allow players to go through peaks and troughs on the big stage but slightly away from the spotlight has meant Saka has been afforded more game time at a younger age than Foden was exposed to at City.
Foden was very much a part of the furniture at City before 2020, but he was constantly having to prove his worth in the first team all the same. Saka, on the other hand, has had a clear path to learn his way in regular 90-minute stints, with Arsenal’s lack of Champions League football giving their better players more chance to pick and choose their European fixtures.
Perhaps it will only be as the pair age and become veteran stars that we will find out just what their polarising early experiences have done for them. Will Foden’s more managed introduction make him a more energetic, rounded player in his thirties? Might Saka’s heavy workload result in his career tapering off sooner under the weight of the extra minutes?
Foden and Saka are prime examples of how differently players can be managed at similar stages of their footballing lifetime. The former has had to bide his time, the latter has hit the ground running, but which will benefit the most from their early experiences?
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
