Lewis was a breakthrough star in our Treble-winning season, impressing at the back and also excelling in the inverted role which merges defence and midfield.
The 18-year-old, who signed a new five year contract today, believes the grounding he received in the younger age groups – and the fact that the philosophy doesn’t change as you move through the stages of your development cycle at City – ensured he wasn’t found wanting when Guardiola came calling.
“I think in the academy the philosophy is the same,” Lewis said shortly after putting pen to paper on his new contract.
“So everyone tries to play out. Everyone tries to play the same way, dominate the game, dominate the ball. So I think it prepares you quite well.
“We all have the same idea from the top to bottom.
“Everyone wants to play, everyone has to be good on the ball. So I think it’s not that big of a switch when you go into first team training and everyone’s so good on it and you have to be up to the level as well.
“Obviously, there’s a big difference between boys and men’s football. That’s the only difference that you can’t really prepare for.”
While Lewis is proud to now call himself a Treble winner, he’s eager to continue to grow and develop across 2023/24 as City hunt more honours.
“I didn’t think I’d even play a game in the Premier League, maybe in the cup here or there, but you know it’s amazing that I got the amount of chances I got last year and what I need is to keep on going now and work even harder.
“[I want to] mainly just continue to improve on myself, get better at certain things, get more game time and be more comfortable playing week in, week out and stuff like that.
“And also just being ready for whenever I’m needed.”
Hear Rico’s interview in full via the video above...
