‘I want to be player of the year’: Phil Foden ready to be Man City’s talisman in the post-De Bruyne era
New season, New Manchester City. And, if everything is going well, the old Phil Foden. The best season of his career was followed by the worst. And yet, in the curiosity of a tournament which did not fully belong to one season or the other, there were clues that he returned to the kind of form which saw him named footballer of the year. The club World Cup can offer a long -term advantage to City if it provides a change of momentum for Foden.
“I wouldn’t say [my] The best absolute but I really felt much sharper, I managed to score a few goals too, “he said. Three, to be precise, the last sound better; His 100th for City came in 4-3 defeat against Al Hilal and was special.
Some 27 of this century came in 2023-24. If Foden could come back to this shine, it can be particularly appropriate.
Even if City had an influx of players, including several circles of attack field, probably the biggest in their history has left. A theory for years was that, despite their differences, Foden was the successor while waiting for Kevin de Bruyne, another that Pep Guardiola could not really build a team around him while the Belgian was there and instrumental.
Will he now? “I do not know where the manager sees me this year,” said Foden, waiting for a discussion with Guardiola. “I can play in different positions, but we all know that my position is the interior, in the pockets, so let’s see what’s going on. I’m not here to reproduce what Kev did because we all know how good it was and what it was for the club. It is a question of doing my best, to reach the level where I won the player of the year, I want to come back to that.”
If he does it, it will be in a different context, a different team. City had a 300 million pound of sterling -in -law in 2025, four recruits in the winter window followed by six on the summer transfers market – even if one of these arrivals, Vitor Reis, is loaned to Gérona and another, Sverre Nypan, could also leave to obtain a football from the first team for the season.
City had 26 players in training on Tuesday, too much for Guardiola’s taste, even with three other injured. The Foden is not sure even if the Etihad stadium locker room is large enough to welcome them all.
However, he thought that the overhaul was necessary. Like the pillars on a large side, like Bruyne and Kyle Walker, left, because Jack Grenish is a surplus of the requirements, the city is filled with arrivals, the summer influx of Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri and James Trafford after players for players such as Omar Marmoungh and Nico Gonzalez.
Foden felt that the city demanded new arrivals. “It always happens at a time when a club needs to add new players and refresh things and we did it in this transfer window and it cannot be good for us, because the players we have brought are very high and integrate directly into the team and give us something we need. We can all see their quality of the club World Cup and what it needs in the team.
Another difference after a season when City lost 17 games, dragged 13 points behind Liverpool and finished 22nd in the Group phase of the Champions League: Rodri is back. If he and Foden were their exceptional individuals in 2023-24, they each lost in a different way, the Spanish unfit, the English out of shape.
Rodri recovered from his crossed ligament injury. Foden warned against too much, too early, but nevertheless enthusiastic by the quality of the Ballon d’Or. “It will take him a little time to return to all his physical form and his sharpness because it is such a long injury, but we all know what Rodri can do,” he said. “He is unstoppable. Playing alongside him is incredible. He just makes you feel safe. He doesn’t lose the ball and he does everything.”
Which would say that City, made all the conquests at the time. They looked imperfect and fragile last season. Now Foden hopes that the combination of proven winners and newly recruited talents can have chemistry to bring them back to the top. They seek to make amends for last year, just like him.
“I think everyone wants to compensate last season,” he added. “We all want to come to our best titles. We have a lot of experience in the locker room, with Bernardo [Silva] Being a captain and I hope he can push the guys. It’s positive when you’ve already done it, you know how to do it. And now, he hopes, they know how to start again.
