There are some fairly certain ways to get a new fanbase onside, and Kalvin Phillips didn’t waste his opportunity to endear himself to Manchester City supporters this week. However, it was a comment about United’s early transfer interest that may get him some early credit with City supporters, as he insisted he could never move to Old Trafford out of loyalty to Leeds.
Kalvin Phillips said: “Going to United? No, there was never any chance of me going there. You know my loyalty to Leeds, my family as well, they’re all Leeds fans. I was honoured by United wanting me, such a big team. One of the biggest teams in the world, but no I had to stay loyal to Leeds and choose to go to the other side of Manchester. It’s just the way I am, the way I think and the way I’ll always be. I want to be loyal to the people who’ve given me the biggest opportunity in the world. Leeds were the first team to sign me, I made sure that was one of the main things I’d do.”
Phillips went on to discuss his changing role from being a regular starter at Leeds to one of many talented midfielders at City, as he accepted that he will have to fight and work hard on the training pitch to earn his place.
Kalvin Phillips said: “At Leeds I was always the guy that needed to play every game, City isn’t the case. There are some amazing players. I need to get my head around that and push myself to be in that bracket where I need to be playing and want to be playing. I spoke to Gareth [Southgate] about lots of teams being interested in me, didn’t speak about the World Cup because we had the Nations League. It’s a risk-reward thing, I want to come here and prove myself against the best players in the world. If I do that, great, and if I don’t then obviously there’s things that might not go to plan. I’m just looking forward to playing my first game for City and pushing on and hopefully playing at the World Cup. The first week’s been difficult but over the next few weeks of pre-season I’ll try my hardest to work as hard as possible and hopefully tomorrow [versus Club America] get a few minutes and go from there. Training is so intense, he [Guardiola] wants us to play on the ball and off it. I had Marcelo [Bielsa] as well who was very demanding, very intense. I feel like this way of playing is good for me. Obviously the standard of football as well is unbelievable so I know I’ll have to be at the very top of my game to get any minutes and get a start. Everything Marcelo taught me was a lot of movement without the ball, creating space for yourself to get on the ball. City’s it’s more moving into spaces to help your teammates get on the ball or getting in position to turn on the ball first time and play forward all the time. It’s just getting used to that, these training sessions will let me get used to it a lot more.”
