Foden breaks silence on his England exile

Speaking on 3 November, Foden said he has had no direct contact with Thomas Tuchel since being omitted from last summer's World Cup squad and then left out again for the current Nations League campaign, according to The Guardian. His message was simple enough: no phone call, no explanation, just silence. His plan to fix it is simpler still, keep playing well for Manchester City and make the decision awkward.

The numbers back the case. Premier League figures have Foden at 2,078 minutes in 2025/26 with 7 goals and 5 assists, an xG of 6.03 and an xA of 4.76, numbers that put him among City's more productive attacking players last season. This campaign has started slower by his standards, 349 minutes so far with 1 goal and 2 assists, though an xG of 2.27 in that sample suggests the service and the chances haven't dried up, just the conversion.

A City side with no excuses

Pep Guardiola's team have given Foden every platform to make his case. City sit top of the Premier League with 21 points from seven games, a perfect 7W 0D 0L record and a goal difference of +12. If Foden is going to argue his way back into an England shirt through club form, there isn't a better stage in the country right now.

The Tuchel puzzle

What Foden can't control is whatever calculation Tuchel is running. The brief here doesn't give us the manager's reasoning, and Tuchel hasn't publicly responded to Foden's comments, so the exclusion remains unexplained from the player's side of the glass. Foden has 49 caps and 4 goals for England, hardly the resume of a squad outsider, which makes the silence more pointed than if this were a fringe player grumbling about minutes.

What happens Friday

Tuchel names his next squad on Friday, and Foden's comments land right in the window where that decision gets made. He didn't request a recall. He just said he's ready for one, and left the paperwork to City's results and his own numbers.