For Manchester City the short-term is what matters. A night in Lisbon next Saturday will hopefully lead to two more. Pep Guardiola and his players have a very real chance of leaving a lasting impression on the Champions League for the very first time.
Beyond that, City are a team that are about to morph in to something a little different. We knew it was coming. It had to.
Theirs was a Premier League title defence that never materialised while players – David Silva the latest – who have formed the foundations of a decade of progress are moving on.
Phil Foden held his own against Real Madrid at the Etihad and showed his time has now arrived
Here, in victory over a self-harming Real Madrid side, we saw a little of what the future will look like. Gabriel Jesus made one goal and scored another. This was arguably the most effective night of a City career that has never really caught fire.
Watching somewhere – from a safe social distance no doubt – were two new signings, the winger Ferran Torres and the central defender Nathan Ake. Judging their season as a whole, it would appear City need the influence of the latter more than they do the former.
Foden was backed by Pep Guardiola, who dropped some star names to get him into the team
And then there is Phil Foden of Stockport, the young playmaker of whom we have heard much and seen not as much as we would sometimes have liked. We have waited for Guardiola to place the 20-year-old Englishman front and central and now he has. Now, at just the right time, Foden is ready.
It is hard to know whether someone like Jesus will ever fully become what City hope. It is difficult to imagine the gifted but inconsistent Brazilian ever growing in to the long-term replacement for Sergio Aguero.
Foden, though, is different. He already looks more than good enough and here his name appeared on the team sheet like a lightning bolt. With players like Silva, his namesake Bernardo and also Riyad Mahrez on the substitutes’ bench, to include Foden felt like a statement from Guardiola.
He rarely gets these things wrong and he didn’t get this wrong. The most notable aspect of some excellent City attacking play since the resumption of play has been the burgeoning partnership between Foden and De Kevin Bruyne. Here, that partnership was merely elevated to the next stage.
Indeed there was a moment midway through the first half when De Bruyne played ball towards Foden with such pace that only a perfect moment of control had any hope of making it stick. The ball stuck.
Foden now looks very much the part alongside the star-studded names of the City squad
Foden cushioned the ball on his left instep without breaking stride. Then, he turned back on to that favoured foot and unleashed a shot on goal. It was blocked and it needed to be.
In the end he was given almost 70 minutes. They weren’t the best 70 minutes of his career at the club but they were probably the most significant, regardless.
The question of if and when Foden would prove good enough to command a place in Guardiola’s team is now redundant. Foden’s time is now, at last, and his rise to prominence during this strange summer of football has been marked.
Some may ask what has changed but, as he said himself previously, a significant part of the battle has always been played out in his own head.
Foden idolises some of those who have stood in his way. Players such as De Bruyne and David Silva have not just been squad mates but, to him at least, modern City legends. It’s sweet and points to a part of Foden’s nature that remains a little callow. But equally it no longer appears to be a barrier.
The other change is another that has long been signalled. It was at the start of last year that the coach who discovered and first nurtured Foden predicted that the only facet of play standing between the young player and real progress was the physical development and maturity that would bring with it a change of pace.
‘When that arrives he will start to look like a young Lionel Messi,’ said Jim Cassell, City’s former academy head.
There was a little bit of hyperbole about that statement. Messi’s name should not be banded about lightly simply because there may well never be another like him. Nevertheless, the change that Cassell talked about has now arrived.
Foden got the nod ahead of outgoing legend David Silva for the Madrid tie, showing his status
Foden is now able to push the ball out in front of him and use his upper body strength and speed over ten yards to make headway. Paul Gascoigne used to do this before his knee injury held him back. Perhaps that would be a more appropriate comparison.
In the early moments here Foden was playing through the middle with Gabriel Jesus on the left. Then, soon after, Foden was found deep in his own half picking up possession and starting play.
To grant a young player such freedom points to trust and also maturity. Foden, as two-footed as they come, already looks as though he could play absolutely anywhere. He is here at last and, we imagine, here to stay.