During Manchester City's era of recent success, excellent recruitment has been one of the key factors. January arrivals Marc Guéhi and Antoine Semenyo have made an instant impact, while summer signings Gianluigi Donnarumma, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Aït-Nouri and Rayan Cherki have all contributed too.
However, one of the club's worst signings, certainly in terms of value for money, has to be Kalvin Phillips. He arrived in the summer of 2022, putting pen to paper on a six-year deal for £45 million from Leeds United, at which point he was considered one of the best players in his position in the country.
However, since then, he has appeared only 32 times for the Citizens, accumulating a miserly 921 minutes. Back in September, he came off the bench for a seven-minute cameo against Huddersfield Town in the EFL Cup, his sole appearance of the season, and first outing in Man City colours for a whopping 645 days.
Thus, on deadline day in February, he joined Sheffield United on a short-term loan, debuting for the Blades against Middlesbrough before starting last weekend's 1-0 win over Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Even if he establishes himself as a regular in Chris Wilder's team, now 30, Phillips is never going to rediscover any semblance of his transfer value, under contract until 2028, and Man City only have themselves to blame.
Kalvin Phillips' disastrous move to Manchester City
At the time he moved to the Etihad, Phillips was an England regular, starting all seven matches at Euro 2020 as the Three Lions reached a first major final in 55 years, also featuring against Wales and Senegal at the subsequent World Cup. However, his most recent international cap came in Skopje in November 2023, a gauge of his decline in relevance.
Kalvin Phillips' season-by-season statistcs
Season | Club(s) | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
2017/18 | Leeds United | 3,360 |
2018/19 | Leeds United | 3,863 |
2019/20 | Leeds United | 3,524 |
2020/21 | Leeds United | 2,519 |
2021/22 | Leeds United | 1,895 |
2022/23 | Manchester City | 595' |
2023/24 | Man City & West Ham | 639' |
2024/25 | Ipswich Town | 1,464 |
2025/26 | Man C & Sheffield United | 120' |
Astonishingly, Phillips played over 700 more minutes during Leeds' promotion-winning campaign of 2019/20 than he has across the last four seasons combined. He has been completely underused at Man City, never given a run of games in which to prove himself, starting only six times for the club. His only two Premier League starts both came after the 2022/23 title had already been secured.
Complete list of Kalvin Phillips' 6 starts for Manchester City
- 11 January 2023. Southampton (A). EFL Cup.
- 28 February 2023. Bristol City (A). FA Cup.
- 21 May 2023. Chelsea (H). Premier League.
- 28 May 2023. Brentford (A). Premier League.
- 27 September 2023. Newcastle United (A). EFL Cup.
- 13 December 2023. Crvena zvezda (A). Champions League.
Upon his return from the World Cup in Qatar, Phillips was not included in Man City's squad to face Liverpool in a Carabao Cup tie. When asked why, Pep Guardiola said, "he is not injured. He arrived overweight... he didn't arrive in the condition for the training sessions and to play."
From the point on, the relationship between coach and player has never seemingly improved, so Man City may just be stuck with the 30-year-old for another two years, not even able to cut their losses.