Kalvin Phillips knows he must take new Man City chance after refusing to leave
He smiled as he spoke, but Kalvin Phillips was serious when he claimed this was the biggest week of his Manchester City career.
Phillips’ four starts for City match the four he has made for England boss Gareth Southgate over the last two seasons and he readily admits he hoped for more. Rodri’s three-match ban for his red card against Nottingham Forest, which includes a trip to Arsenal on October 8, have given Phillips an unexpected chance and he intends to take it.
Phillips helped give City the solidity they needed when he replaced Jeremy Doku after Rodri’s dismissal and is eyeing up Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Newcastle.
“Yeah, this is probably the biggest week or so in my Man City career so far,” he smiled. “It’s something I’m looking forward to and I’m ready for it.”
Phillips deserves credit for sticking at City when he could have left in the summer and Pep Guardiola claimed there was loan interest in the England midfielder. He typifies Yorkshire grit and he stayed because he wanted to prove himself following his £42million switch from Leeds 14 months ago.
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“Yeah, that’s what I’m all about,” he said. “I’m not going to have just one season at City and just because I’m not playing say, ‘oh well, I’ve been here for a year and enjoyed it, but it’s not for me’.
“I want to try and break my way into the team even though it’s very difficult. I want to try and make a name for myself at Manchester City. That’s the reason I came. I didn’t come here to just to sit on the bench and be happy doing nothing. I want to continue in some way and hopefully I can do that.
“There have been times last season, this season, where I’ve been very unhappy, but it’s all been an experience for me, growing as a person and a player. When I came in for pre-season, I said I wanted to stay and give it another shot.
“In previous years a lot of players have done well second season and I had a talk with the club and they said that if I wanted to go out on loan, they would be happy for me to do that.
“I just said no, it’s not something I was thinking of. I just wanted to concentrate on playing for Manchester City so, yeah, that was the end of it.”
Kalvin Phillips of Manchester City looks on from the substitutes (2023 Getty Images)City showed contrasting qualities and after turning on the style to blow Forest away inside 14 minutes with goals from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland, their 10 men showed the steel needed to keep them out. They also had to cope with some strange officiating from referee Anthony Taylor and while Rodri had only himself to blame for putting his hands round Morgan Gibbs-White’s neck, the 10 bookings were excessive.
The animated Guardiola wasn’t happy and was booked for protesting while he told Gibbs-White, who is godfather to pal Foden’s kids, what he thought of him when he went on the pitch at the final whistle.
When he calmed down, City were still top of the Premier League pile with six wins from six. Guardiola’s back operation has clearly been a success and Phillips says the players love his energy.
“Pep is a very passionate and emotional manager,” he said. “Football is a very emotional game and you get very invested in it. That’s what Pep is.”
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