Kalvin Phillips moved to West Ham on loan in the winter. Now the national player explains why.
Midfielder Kalvin Phillips has spoken about the problems with his former Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola. “When Pep came and said I was overweight, he was right. But there are different ways to address it,” Phillips said in an interview with the English Mirror. Guardiola publicly criticized his player after the World Cup in Qatar and accused him of weight problems.
The Spaniard explained at the time: “Phillips is not injured. He arrived overweight and cannot train or play in this condition.” Phillips now gave an insight into his emotional world at the time: “I didn’t disagree with him, but of course it severely weakened my self-confidence and my feeling at City. My family wasn’t happy about it either,” the professional continued.
Phillips can imagine that Guardiola was “obviously frustrated that I didn’t get back into training sooner after the Qatar World Cup. But it was just a miscommunication between the people who worked at City and me.”
The defensive man moved from Leeds United to Manchester City in the summer of 2022 for 50 million euros. So far he has only played 31 competitive games. In the last transfer window, Phillips moved to West Ham United on loan.