When contract negotiations drag on, alarm bells start to ring. Manchester City. Leroy Sane wouldn’t commit to a new deal in 2018 and in 2020 he was gone — and it would have been sooner but for a knee injury.
Raheem SterlingHe delayed the inevitable in spring 2021, and this summer he also packed his bags.
Phil Foden’s contract — or at least the official announcement of it — has dragged on, too. It was rumored that it would all be sewed up last summer and again this summer, but there was no official announcement.
The thing with Foden, though, is there was never anything to worry about, either from City’s point of view or his. As one source close to negotiations once put it, “there is no leverage in talks, it’s not like he wants to go to Real Madrid”.
Sources close to this deal say there was some tension at the beginning of the summer. Txiki Begiristain, the director of football, had told associates in July that the deal was over.
It was agreed on Thursday and completed in the last few weeks, which is a good year after the initial thought of the deal being imminent. Foden has finally signed his second major City contract.
After scoring a last-minute winner in Manchester City’s first-leg quarter-final victory over Borussia DortmundIn the Champions LeagueFoden was mobbed by his teammates the previous season.
