by Pep Guardiola wants Phil Foden to follow in Erling Haaland’s footsteps and devote his entire career to Manchester City.
Haaland signed a stunning and exceptional new nine-and-a-half year contract this week, keeping him at the club until 2034.
The Norwegian striker celebrated with a goal in Sunday’s 6-0 defeat to Ipswich, while Foden scored two.
England international Foden has played a key role in City’s recent mini-revival, having scored five goals in their last three Premier League outings.
His current contract runs until 2027, but Guardiola said: “He should not (leave).
“He can be a one-club man, finish his career here and play for many, many years. At his age and with the number of goals, the number of games, the number of assists, his work ethic.
“The biggest quality is that around the box he has goals in his blood, in his bones, in his head. He thinks: ‘I’m going to score’.
“It’s not easy to find. That’s why I want to try to put him in central positions because he has a specific quality.
“We have spoken several times over the last few months or weeks, he was a completely different boy at the start of the season with some problems, because they are human beings and sometimes in a long career you have a setback, that’s normal.
“But we’re really happy that he’s happy again and enjoying playing and that’s really good for all of us.”
City appear to be relishing playing again after securing their biggest Premier League victory in more than two years.
Mateo Kovacic, Jeremy Doku and James McAtee were also on target as the champions, who started in eighth place, overtook Newcastle and moved into fourth on goal difference.
This is their best league win since beating Nottingham Forest by the same scoreline in August 2022 and means that after their alarming run towards the end of last year with just one win in 14 matches, they are back in the top four for the first time since. December 1st.
“For a long time we didn’t perform the way we did and the most important thing today was obviously the result, but it was the fact that they realized what we were. For a long time, for many reasons we weren’t,” Guardiola added.
“The important thing is to realize, ‘Oh, when we do this, OK, we can compete or we can be a team enjoying what we love to do.’
“I hope the players can feel it. We’ve talked a lot lately about what we’ve been missing.
Memories of Ipswich’s 9-0 humiliation by Manchester United 30 years ago came flooding back to many at Portman Road but, fortunately for them, City declared the six.
City boss Kieran McKenna said: “It was a painful game for us, there’s no doubt about that. The opponent was too strong for us in every way.
“It was a good match for 27 minutes. We could have scored the first goal. But after the first goal their confidence and quality reached a level we couldn’t handle. It was a really difficult day.
