Pep Guardiola had only just arrived at Manchester City in the summer of 2016 when he was told he had a generational talent on his hands in Phil Foden.
Then the Spaniard witnessed it with his own eyes.
“We saw something special. Unique,” Guardiola recalled about the day Foden — then a precocious 17-year-old — joined in training with City’s senior squad for the first time.
Quite the compliment from a coach who nurtured Lionel Messi to greatness at Barcelona, so it’s no surprise Guardiola has regarded the development of Foden as something of a pet project.