The second class of parishioners were less Philistine, certainly, but even more hopeless from the parish priest’s point of view. In their luxurious houses they lived an easy, selfish, and sensual life, beyond his reach, surrounded by a wall of indifferentism, and contemptuous of all that was not tangible and material.

Let us (ſaith he [Gregory of Nazianzus]) celebrate this feaſt, not in a panegyrical but divine, not in a vvorldly but ſuperſecular manner; not regarding ſo much our ſelves or ours, as the vvorſhip of Chriſt, &c.

Emma had produced a cabbagey, beety soup with strips of last night's boiled beef in it, chunks of yesterday's potatoes and dumplings thrown in […]

not in his favoured midfield role, either but as a false No 9: the sort of role Guardiola only hands to his chosen, crystalline few: Mario Götze at Bayern Munich (less successfully), Lionel Messi at Barcelona (a little more so). Where Foden eventually ends up on that sliding scale is a game of pointless conjecture. But it speaks volumes of Foden’s versatility, technical ability, effortless aggression and tireless running that Guardiola felt that this was the time to find out.