Kalvin Phillips has candidly discussed his departure from Manchester City, expressing feelings of being “useless” during his time at the club.
After playing in just four league matches for Manchester City this season, Phillips secured a loan move to West Ham United during the January transfer window. Since joining City from Leeds United in the summer of 2022, he has made only 16 league appearances.
Making his debut as a starter for West Ham against Bournemouth, Phillips’s match was marred by an early mistake. Despite criticism, particularly from Roy Keane following an error against Manchester United, Phillips is gradually regaining match fitness after struggling with a shoulder injury at City.
Reflecting on his time at Manchester City, Phillips admitted feeling “very sad” about leaving the Etihad and confessed to feeling “useless” due to the lack of playing time.
“It’s a massive decision for me and my family, but I think it was a decision that I needed to make because I wasn’t getting much game time,” Phillips shared with West Ham’s official website.
“The one thing that I wanted when I left Man City in January was to be back playing and to be enjoying myself playing football as well.
When you don’t play football for so long, you kind of feel a little bit useless because you’ve not been doing anything. So, for me, it was just more coming to a good club with good fans and just enjoying my football again.”
Despite initial sadness about leaving Manchester City, Phillips quickly shifted his focus to embracing his new opportunity at West Ham.
“I was very sad when I knew that my next step had to be to move on, but I got over that quite quickly and was just more excited than anything to get down here and see the place and see how London is, which is very busy,” he added. “I was very excited to get going.”
Phillips aims to secure a consistent run of games at West Ham to regain his form, with hopes of earning a spot in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for Euro 2024.
