Kalvin Phillips and his time at Manchester City always come under microscopic scrutiny owing to his potential, and the role he played (or rather not played) with the Cityzens. Pep Guardiola has consistently been criticized for not using Kalvin Phillips enough, while Gareth Southgate always came under spotlight to take him with the national team despite him not playing enough. Back in 2022 following the World Cup in Qatar, Pep Guardiola came out and labelled the midfielder as “overweight” and tagged such reason for not playing him.
Pep made these comments following a Carabao Cup fourth-round tie against Liverpool back in December 2022 when he was asked to explain the reason over Kalvin Phillips’ exclusion from the squad.
Phillips cited those comments as a big blow to his confidence, his exact words being “a big knock to my confidence” when the 28-year-old was asked about Pep’s comments earlier this month.
The apologies has been sent
Pep Guardiola has come out and apologized to Kalvin Phillips over his comments. “I’m sorry,” said Guardiola. “I do apologise to him. I’m so sorry.”
Pep off late mentioned that he had a conversation with Kalvin Phillips upon the matter following his break after the World Cup. “I did speak about that,” said the City boss. “I never before said something here [to the media] without speaking to the player.”
🔵 Pep Guardiola on overweight comments about Kalvin Phillips: “I’m sorry…”.
“Once in eight years is not bad, but I’m so sorry. I apologised to him, I do apologise, I’m so sorry”. pic.twitter.com/pOGwHSjidy
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 19, 2024
A bright new dawn for Phillips
Kalvin Phillips has had a difficult start to his career at West Ham. The fact that he is getting regular game time with a possibility to anchor the midfield will boost his confidence and we can only hope that he gets better with time and become his old self again.
