Kalvin Phillips joined Manchester City last summer from Leeds United for £45 million as reinforcement for the club’s midfield.
However, he failed to nail down a starting spot in manager Pep Guardiola’s lineup and made just 31 appearances the entire season; four before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and 17 after of which most were off-the-bench appearances.
When asked why he doesn’t play Phillips very often, Guardiola said that the player was “in no condition to play.”
It has now emerged that Guardiola’s comments didn’t sit well with Phillips who felt he was in a good condition but added that he did his best to get to the manager’s fitness requirements.
“For me, I wasn’t overweight, but obviously the manager has seen it in a very different way. I just took it and did my best to get as fit as possible,” Phillips told BBC Radio 5 Live‘s Breakfast show.
“It was a little hard to take just because of how much it was oversized and how many people started talking about it. I was on the bench for the Leeds game straight after that and I was fit every match since then. It was just one of those things, it was a misunderstanding from me and some staff members.
During the interview, Phillips also revealed that he talked to teammates about his struggles at his new club and got some advice and reassuring words from players like Jack Grealish, who had arrived at the club on a record fee and didn’t play as much in his first season either.
“I spoke to quite a few of the lads about their first season at City, about when they joined and how difficult they found it. They said exactly the same things… that it takes at least 12 months to really understand what the manager wants you to do, the way he wants you to play and how he wants you to work,” Phillips explained.
“But I knew that anyway. I have been friends with Jack [Grealish] for a long, long time. I spoke to him last year when I was struggling to make it into the team and he was just saying he understands – the first season at City is always difficult.
Despite Phillips’s limited play time, he was part of a treble-winning Manchester City squad and hopes he can play more regularly next session especially now with the departure of club captain Ilkay Gundogan that made space in midfield.
