Kalvin Phillips has opened up about his departure from Manchester City, expressing feelings of being ‘useless’ during his time at the club.
Phillips, who joined West Ham United on loan during the January transfer window, had only made four league appearances for Manchester City this season. Since his move from Leeds United in the summer of 2022, he has made just 16 league appearances for the club.
His debut for West Ham against Bournemouth was marred by a mistake early in the match, and he faced criticism from Roy Keane following an error against Manchester United last weekend.
However, Phillips is gradually regaining match fitness after struggling with a shoulder injury.
Despite the challenges, Phillips admitted feeling ‘very sad’ about leaving Manchester City and revealed feeling ‘useless’ during his time at the Etihad.
“It’s obviously 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,” he told 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.”
The 28-year-old added: “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. I was very excited to get going.”
Phillips will be hoping for a run of games at West Ham so he can regain his form in view of making Gareth Southgate’s England squad for Euro 2024.