Here's The Athletic report
Guardiola’s mass of teenage talent ready to follow Foden’s lead
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By Sam Lee Sept 22, 2021 21
The League Cup has earned a special, almost cultish place in the hearts of Manchester City fans over the past few years and there can be no greater example of that than the fact that Phil Foden has a dog called “Carabao”.
Yes, the day after his man-of-the-match performance against Aston Villa in the 2020 final at Wembley, he bought a french bulldog and came up with a name which will delight City fans the world over, not to mention energy drink marketeers.
Foden scored his first City goal in this competition, on one of those classic Carabao nights at Oxford United when local teenagers stood atop parked cars to see him fizz in a strike at the far post before taking off towards the away end, knee-sliding in delight. His shirt and boots from that night are framed at his parents’ house.
That was three years ago, when he was just 18 years old and words like “hype” and “promise” were still being used to discuss his route to the first team.
He has got four Carabao Cup winners’ medals to his name now and on Tuesday night, aged 21, he was one of the senior players as a lop-sided City team showed their quality against League One Wycombe Wanderers.
When he flashed in a thunderbolt before half-time his celebration, chest puffed up like he owned the place, it highlighted just how far he has come.
He is an example to the six teenagers who made their senior debuts at the Etihad, as well as Cole Palmer, who has been around the block compared to the rest and who scored his first City goal to cap a 6-1 win.
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Palmer scores his goal (Photo: Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
Pep Guardiola cautioned afterwards how they may not reach Foden’s level — “because Phil is a special player” — but there is room for them to shine.
James McAtee, another silky attacking midfielder is taking the Foden route quite literally: he was used as a very attacking left-back for the final 20 minutes. Foden, it might be recalled, made his first City start at left-wing-back against Shakhtar Donetsk four years ago.
City’s line-up was lopsided enough before that, in the sense that each of the back four were 18 years old, the midfield enforcer 17, with Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Ferran Torres, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling ensuring there was a measure of experience elsewhere.
There was something of a party atmosphere, or at least there was in the City dugout. With City 1-0 down the cameras showed Guardiola and his coaches having a little chuckle, and before that the City boss had playfully thrown the ball back to his opposite number, Gareth Ainsworth, as if this were Soccer Aid.
Once City had equalised he even found time for a joke with the fourth official, with the kind of playful smile he reserves for end-of-season parties.
He was quick, however, to remind his young defenders when they should have played the ball wide sooner, as he would do if John Stones or Ruben Dias were out there.
Although they certainly had their hands full with Adebayo Akinfenwa, who at 39 is as experienced as he is massive. Finley Burns, the tall centre-back who has been highly rated since City signed him from Southend for £175,000 at the age of 13, was tidy overall but could do nothing to stop Akinfenwa from winning any high ball that he fancied. But neither could De Bruyne, who had to mark him for goal kicks.
Perhaps the big man did not fancy going up against Luke Mbete, a physically imposing centre-back. He was picked up by City when Brentford closed their academy and, as much as his defensive qualities, his incisive passing through the lines marks him out as one to watch.
CJ Egan-Riley, a City boy since the age of eight, showed the beauty of the club’s coaching structure by tucking into Kyle Walker’s inverted right-back position inside the first two minutes, while Joshua Wilson-Esbrand, signed from West Ham United at 16, had set fans chattering by providing a fine assist for City’s second.
He kept hold of the ball on the left, with Guardiola unhappy about something on the sidelines, drove to the byline, checked back and calmly picked out Mahrez for a customary City cut-back finish, his first of two. Guardiola celebrated with two fists in the air, aimed in encouragement at his newest left-back.
Wilson-Esbrand has not been at City long and his development was stalled by an eight-month lay-off with a knee injury, but after working with ex-Aston Villa midfielder Alan Wright, the under-16s coach, and strength and conditioning coach Will Whitney, he is said to have come back quicker and stronger, and he looked both of those things, as well as composed.
As he departed with 20 minutes to go, Guardiola had both hands above his head again, clapping this time, and encouraged the crowd to join him.
And then there was Romeo Lavia, one of the most highly-rated prospects in the academy right now. Signed last summer from Anderlecht, his start to life in Manchester was delayed by an injury but he took so well to under-18s football — at the age of 16 — that he was quickly promoted to the under-23s, where he has stayed.
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Lavia has quickly risen through the ranks since arriving from Anderlecht (Photo: Matt McNulty – Manchester City/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
There is hope within the academy that he could one day replace Fernandinho at the base of City’s midfield and while those expectations may be a little lofty he did his chances no harm.
He was clattered, Football League style, by David Wheeler within 80 seconds, and man-marked throughout, but looked unfazed, even when Akinfenwa tried to engage him in some sledging.
The midfielder, who played at the De Bruyne Cup, an under-15 tournament, in Belgium in front of Guardiola two years ago, used the ball well, offloading it when under pressure and gliding forward into space when the opportunity arose.
Foden’s goal killed off the Wycombe challenge before half-time and his delightful low cross allowed Torres to steer in City’s fourth, before Mahrez did his thing again, this time from Sterling’s cut-back.
Palmer, the 19-year-old with five senior appearances to his name, came on to wrap things up with his first City goal, one that highlights why he is so highly rated, too. He picked the ball up just inside the Wycombe half, advanced on a tired defence, curled a beautiful effort into the far corner and took off towards the fans in the corner, capping it with a knee slide of his own.
“I remember getting the ball on the halfway line and thinking, ‘I’m not coming back, because I’ve waited for this moment’. To get the opportunity, I thought ‘I’m going’. Hit one, straight in, loved it,” he said.
“That’s probably the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
Palmer did the media duties but it was Foden who picked up another man of the match award. He stayed out on the pitch after the final whistle, applauding all four stands of the ground and waving to the families who rushed to the front to see him, their homegrown hero.
He might not be naming a dog after this one but nights like these still mean a lot to him, clearly, and there are now another seven City youngsters who will feel the same.
Watch on 
