Phil Foden’s 'quiet' Man City season shows he is miles ahead of Manchester United’s Jadon Sancho

For a player who is supposedly having a 'quiet season', Phil Foden has been excellent for Manchester City in recent months.

The Blues academy graduate set the Premier League alight last season as he established himself as a sure starter in Pep Guardiola's side, so much so that his slightly reduced productivity this term has prompted some to say he has regressed.

That is simply not true, although there are a few reasons why some might come to that initial conclusion. What is clear though is that Foden is enjoying a better season than cross-town rival and former academy teammate Jadon Sancho.

While it's true that Sancho's performances since his £73m move to United last summer have improved since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked - take from that what you will - with each passing week the feeling grows that the winger was wrong to leave City in 2017 in search of instant success, while Foden was right in staying at the club and following a gradual development plan.

Because let's be clear; City did not want to sell Sancho to Borussia Dortmund in 2017. This was not a case of City selling a young player on for peanuts because they didn't have the patience to develop them, rather it was the other way round.

Sancho wanted immediate first-team football and a professional wage to match, whereas City wanted to bring him into the first-team setup over a number of years. To Sancho's credit, he proved an instant hit in Germany but the way that Foden has overtaken him this season suggests that the latter took the best path to regular Premier League minutes.

Last season while largely playing on the left wing, Foden notched 16 goals and 10 assists in 50 appearances for City. However, as Guardiola recently explained, statistics never tell