From James McAtee we are talking about the new Phil Foden and Pep Guardiola seems to be the first to place great faith in his qualities, as happened with all the great promises from Manchester City’s youth team. The precedents speak for themselves: Phil Foden, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb, Cole Palmer… and Liam Delap, who is shining at Ipswich Town. Delap chose, like Palmer, to continue growing away from Manchester City and Guardiola, and his choice proved to be the right one.
Excluding the Norwegian, who suffered an injury at the start of the season, the other three are starting to make their place in the team and in the Premier League. McAtee recently received a well-deserved reward in the match against Slovan Bratislava on the second day of the Champions League, also scoring the goal to make it 4-0. His statistics with the Sheffield shirt, the last club to have him on loan, in the Premier and FA Cup are not bad at all: five goals and four assists in 33 games, therefore with an important role in the team. “I would like to have James McAtee and keep him for next season,” Guardiola said during the build-up. “He’s a special guy to play in small spaces, we don’t have many like that,” he added. He is a midfielder who can play all midfield positions, although he can shine more as an attacking midfielder. In fact, the club are so aware of his potential that they have turned down offers in excess of £30 million for him. A clear sign that McAtee is part of Pep Guardiola’s plans.
Name: James McAtee
Date of birth: October 18, 2002
Nationality: English
Role: attacking midfielder
Squad: Manchester City
It looks like: Phil Foden
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