Speaking to The Telegraph, Willhoft-King reflected on first-team sessions under Guardiola, he said: “Tottenham is a good team but Man City is another level. De Bruyne, Haaland … these are the best players in the world. But you also realise they are normal people. They have a bit of banter, they call each other out for making mistakes. And seeing Pep … he is just so, so animated. The energy he brings, the hand gestures, raising his voice. It’s actually pretty remarkable.” 

However, the experience quickly became mentally challenging: “Then … I don’t want to say disillusioned but you realise … well, training with the first team became a thing that no one was really looking forward to, strangely enough. Because you would just be pressing. We would be running after the ball like dogs for half an hour, 60 minutes. It’s not a very pleasant experience, especially when you are trying to press De Bruyne or Gündogan or Foden. You can’t get near them, so the feeling of not wanting to do this overcomes being starstruck.” 

Speaking about how he ultimately fell out of love with the day-to-day reality of life as a young pro, the Englishman added: “I wasn’t enjoying it. I don’t know what it was, maybe the environment. I’m bored often, as well. You’d train, you’d come home and you wouldn’t really do anything. If you contrast it to now … I’m struggling to find hours in the day.” 

He also described his career outlook beyond football: “I always felt understimulated in football. Don’t get me wrong. I still loved it. But I always felt I could be doing more. I was wasting hours of the day. I needed something different and Oxford excited me; the people, too. I guess that’s the reason.  

“Say I had a career in League One or the Championship … you make good money. But how much would I enjoy it? In my head I wasn’t sure. Also, best-case scenario – you’ll play for 10, 15 years and after that, what? I thought going to university would provide a platform for me to do something at least for longer than the next 10 to 15 years. So, it’s a bit of a long-term thing, as well.”