Press Conference, Part Two: Pep Guardiola’s latest Phil Foden contract admission | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted he doesn’t know what is the latest surrounding Phil Foden’s contract with the club and talk of a renewal.

The England international playmaker is once again emerging as one of Manchester City’s integral attacking components this season, having struggled immensely during the previous campaign alongside his teammates.

Foden’s latest heroics came in Premier League action to ensure there would be no upset at the Etihad, scoring a brace in a 3-2 win against Leeds – one inside 60 seconds and the second within the first minute of 10 additional minutes of stoppage time at the end of the contest.

The Stockport-born attacking midfielder’s rise in form is coming at the perfect time, with City somewhat faltering and looking for consistency in terms of winning score-lines, and Erling Haaland finding himself in a mini-rut in front of goal.

Given the player’s importance, talk of a contract renewal has been rife over the last few weeks and months with Foden entering into the final 18 months of his ongoing contractual agreement and City keen to reflect his growth in the side with improved terms.

That was one of the talking points put to Pep Guardiola during this week’s latest press conference, in addition to Gianluigi Donnarumma’s four yellow cards this season, and the importance of goalscoring aside from Haaland in the team.

Here is every single word from part two of Guardiola’s pre-Fulham press conference from the City Football Academy on Monday afternoon!

On Phil Foden’s contract situation: “You are right [that we want him to stay for many years]. Completely right!”

(No update?) “No idea, but hopefully he can stay all his career here. He’s a special player, a Man City fan, from the Academy, so no doubts about that. But I don’t know him, his agent, the Club, I don’t know.”

On Gianluigi Donnarumma needing to improve on not complaining and protesting against decisions: “Yeah, for sure. He will, step by step, understand things, a new league, new behaviours.”

(Is it a case of speaking to him?) “No. He’s adult enough.”

On the weekend as a whole with Arsenal dropping points: “Yeah absolutely. It was a game [vs Leeds] under control and we made two mistakes especially the first one, and after the emotions were there.

“And we have to try to, when the opponents score goals because they deserve it and not giving away by ourselves, because we reopen the game when it was under control.

“But yeah, always I’ve said it’s a process and still it’s getting better and getting better, and of course getting results always helps us, and try to continue that way, make a game by game, a good run of points.”

On Phil Foden saying he’s become more of a leader in the squad: “On the pitch, always he has been like that. He’s not a guy who talks much in the dressing room but on the pitch he never hides behind the scenes and never hides from what’s going on.

“Always he’s took responsibility from day one, always he’s been an incredible presence on the pitch.”

On whether he sees Phil Foden entering Manchester City’s captaincy group: “If he wants, yeah. If he wants to become, yeah. But captains, at the end, become from themselves, from your behaviour on and off the pitch. It depends on him.”

On whether Phil Foden can score the sort of goals Raheem Sterling and other contributors provided in the past: “He has done it in the past. Phil, in the year when we won the last Premier League, the fourth in a row, he was the best player and I think – I don’t know how many – he scored a lot of goals and assists.

“But that’s the truth; the years we won success, not just the strikers, but especially all the wingers and attacking midfielders, especially one year from [Ilkay] Gundo, the year of the Treble, scored a lot of goals. We need that.”

On whether that is a function of his team playing well or the players individually: “Absolutely, the way we play we have to create, try to create a lot of chances but that is the truth.

“Tijjani [Reijnders] in the last three or four games, many games always shooting inside of the box, the keeper saves, and arriving in a moment that you put the ball in the net, and our game and our results will be better. That’s for sure.”

On the busy run of Premier League fixtures in the next five weeks: “Well, when you are 20 points in front of second, it’s not crucial but we are in the position, and we came from the week before the international break that was crucial for us because of course Arsenal is not dropping points.

“The situation that we have, we have to win games otherwise it will be difficult.”

On needing the whole squad: “Yeah, obviously. You see the schedule in my office and I see December, especially January, and February as well, if we continue in the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup is involved, we have a lot, a lot of games. No doubt about that.”

On whether it’s too early to say whether Manchester City will do business in January: “Too early.”