Foden will be here as long as I am - Pep

PHIL Foden will stay at City for at least as long as Pep Guardiola is in charge - according to the manager.

The Blues boss, who is under contract at the Etihad until 2021, has been raving about the 19-year-old since his first friendly match for the club in the summer of 2017, but has attracted criticism in some quarters for making him wait for first-team opportunities.

The Stockport youngster came off the bench against Schalke and rounded the keeper to score, in the process becoming the youngest City player to net in the competition and the youngest English player to score in the Champions League knockout stages. Guardiola defended the amount of games he has given to the teenager - this appearance made it 23 for the season, with eight of them starts - and suggested that he will now be a part of the firstteam in Manchester for as long as he wants to be. “People say Phil Foden doesn’t play too much,” said the City boss. “He is 18, it is his first season and he plays a lot of minutes already, a lot of games. The people say he should be on loan.

“Phil Foden is not going to be on loan.

“As long as I am here he will be close to me because he is an incredibly talented player.

“I am happy for him for his first goal in Europe, he has scored before in the cups and in the league. Congratulations for the minutes he played and the goal he took really well again.”