Manchester City forward Phil Foden believes winning the FA Cup and finishing in the Premier League top four will “save a poor season” and set them up to challenge for the top honours again.
Nine league defeats have left Pep Guardiola’s side 22 points adrift of leaders Liverpool and in a battle just to qualify for the Champions League, having exited that competition at the hands of Real Madrid in the play-off round.
The FA Cup and the often much-derided post-season Club World Cup, newly expanded and already more difficult to win, is the only silverware left available to City.
While neither would have been top of their list back in August, Foden said they had to take something from a disappointing campaign.
“It is so important. I feel if we come up with the FA Cup and finish in the top four it will save a poor season in my eyes,” Foden told the PA news agency at a session of a new McDonald’s Fun Football partnership with UK Deaf Sport which offers hearing impairment sessions across England.
“It is one of our main targets now to make sure that we are playing Champions League next season. It’s in our hands if we win our games as we’ve got to believe in what we can do and believe we can do it.
“It’ll be a real positive and maybe we’ll go into next season with a bit more confidence. It wasn’t our aim to be here at the start of the season but that’s football sometimes, you never know what’s round the corner.
“There’s always teams improving and challenging us and, yeah, we’ve had a bit of a slip this season but we can still finish it off strong and save the season if you like.”
In eight years the 24-year-old has won six league titles, the Champions League, two FA Cups and four League Cups in an almost unprecedented golden spell for an academy player.
When success becomes the norm, failure is felt all the more keenly and Foden said it had brought a new appreciation of just what he had achieved.
“One hundred per cent. If I ever win anything again I am going to make sure I enjoy it even more because it shows how quickly things can change,” he added.
“What we were doing in the past isn’t normal so it shows the level of football which was set and how challenging it is to do what we did.
“People have seasons like this and it’s about how you come back. You can’t always be at the top and this happens, it’s a part of football. There’s going to be ups and down,
“So I’m definitely going to enjoy it if I win more things in the future.”
Foden, with cotton wool stuffed in his ears to mimic the effect of the hearing impairments the participating children had, took part in a session in Manchester and afterwards was taught some sign language.
“It was good to try it out, it was more difficult than I ever imagined,” he said.
“You feel a little bit off-balance and tricky to play football so I can imagine how it feels for the kids running around and playing. It was a different experience for me.”
:: McDonald’s Fun Football and UK Deaf Sport are offering free, specialised football sessions for children with hearing impairments across England. Find your nearest session at mcdonalds.co.uk/football.
