Rico Lewis believes there is even more to come from his Manchester City teammates, who remain unbeaten this season and are scoring for fun.
Lewis, 17, has been promoted to the first team this season to provide cover at right-back, and has three senior appearances to his name — including a Champions League debut on Wednesday against FC Copenhagen. The teenager has had a front row seat to City's brilliant start to the season, led by Erling Haaland's goals, and reflected on his experiences in training with Pep Guardiola's squad after the Copenhagen game.
"It's a dream come true, he's the best manager there is and all I can do is take all the information from him," Lewis said of training under Guardiola and playing alongside his senior teammates.
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"How City have played a lot of tiki-taka, everyone gets it off him. Coaches have told us how he wants players to play. When he came it was watching his teams throughout the whole academy and just copying what they do. If you do something wrong you can only get told what to do. You can only do something right.
"They are unbelievable, you only see part of it on the pitch. Coming into training and seeing them every day is just a joke how good they actually are. You don't really see it, they show as much as they can, but they're the best team in the world."
And while Lewis is looking forward to seeing City replicate their training levels in games, he also reflected on his Champions League debut in a game that ended with three academy graduates coming off the bench. However, he said he nearly missed his own introduction when Guardiola called for him to get prepared.
He said: "It's like a dream. Words can't describe how great it was. Even to get on for ten minutes would have been good. To get that much time is just amazing.
"There were three of us so I don't know who he was pointing to. As soon as he picks me, my heart sinks for a second. Then he tells me I'm coming on and I start realising, I know what to do and know my role. From then I was calm. When I'm on the pitch it's doing what I've done since I was seven years old.
"My journey started from a friend getting me a trial. Since then I've just been City and been a City fan since five or six and throughout the whole academy. The whole journey through the academy has been nothing but good. To come all the way and get to this point is just a dream.
"To see all three of us on the pitch, for everyone at the academy it shows it's possible. You've just got to do what the manager tells you to do. To see all three of us is little building blocks for the future."
Teammate Cole Palmer, who also featured on Wednesday, echoed Lewis' thoughts and hailed the game as another big milestone for the academy. "It's good, every local lad or someone who comes through the academy wants to do it," he said.
"Credit to the academy, I can't thank them enough. Hopefully I can follow in [Phil Foden]'s footsteps and create my own story just like Phil has."
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