Now he's scoring against Barcelona and has impressed Pep Guardiola so much there's a red carpet rolled out towards a first-team squad place next season. O'Reilly was speaking minutes after Guardiola had held the door wide open for him to join the first team set-up, ushering him through. Guardiola urged patience with O'Reilly, who suffered a long injury lay-off last season to put the brakes on his progress through the age groups. The goals caught the eye of Guardiola, who called O'Reilly up to first-team training shortly after and made a point of congratulating him on his strikes. He came back, middle of last season and trains with us," recalls Guardiola.

Source: Express August 01, 2024 13:18 UTC