Sent off on 23 minutes, celebrating at the bus
Phil Foden held up the scoreline with his fingers to Manchester United supporters as he boarded the team bus at Old Trafford. Manchester City had just won the derby 1-0. Foden had watched most of it from the dressing room.
Roy Keane saw the clip and took it apart on the Stick to Football podcast this morning. “You’ve just been sent off, what are you doing? Get on the bus,” the former United captain said.
The complaint was about context. Foden was dismissed in the 23rd minute for a challenge on Bruno Fernandes. His team-mates then spent more than an hour a man down before Erling Haaland settled it.
Jill Scott argued his corner on the show, pointing to the abuse he had taken from the stands and to what the club means to him. Keane was unmoved. Leave ten men to do an hour’s work, he reckoned, and you forfeit the right to gloat at the end of it.
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The same pundit had defended him that morning
What makes the outburst odd is that Keane had been on Foden’s side only hours before.
On the red card, the Irishman put the blame on Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese made the tackle, then caught Foden again while he was down, and only then did the City player react.
“Foden is reckless, but Bruno is too,” Keane said at the time, arguing the challenge never carried enough force to warrant a dismissal. So the criticism has nothing to do with the foul. It is about the ninety seconds after the final whistle.
A week that keeps getting worse
The red card had already filled the English airwaves. Then England named their latest squad on Friday and left him out. Trent Alexander-Arnold is in. So are Cole Palmer and the teenager Rio Ngumoha.
City, for their part, dealt with the whole thing coolly. Ten men, a one-goal lead, three points from Old Trafford. The football will be remembered as a night of stubbornness from Pep Guardiola’s side. What Foden did afterwards is still running on the panel shows.
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