Man City flop Kalvin Phillips makes fresh confession on Pep’s ‘overweight’ jibe and details negative impact on career

Manchester City loanee Kalvin Phillips says he was “frustrated” with the “narratives” that followed him in the wake of manager Pep Guardiola calling him “overweight”.

The Man City boss criticised the midfielder’s physique upon his return from the 2022 Qatar World Cup, with the former Leeds United star admitting the comments were a “big knock” to his confidence earlier this year.

Guardiola later said he was “sorry” for those remarks but the now Ipswich Town loanee has revealed that that label has been hard to shake off. Since moving to Portman Road for the 2024/25 season, the 28-year-old says he is now in a better place – thanks, in part, to Tractor Boys manager Kieran McKenna.

Phillips said on the ‘My Mate’s A Footballer‘ podcast: “You probably heard about the time when Pep came out and said that I was overweight after the World Cup and stuff. That [overweight] narrative on social media just kind of grew and grew. Every club that I’d go to, I spoke to the manager and the nutritionist, and they’d always speak about weight before they’d say anything else.

“I was getting quite frustrated with it, but now I’ve come to Ipswich, the manager [McKenna] is an unbelievable person as well as a manager. We spoke about all the past stuff that happened in my career. He just said, ‘I’m big on body composition and I just want you to get to where you were when you left Leeds. That’ll give us a good starting point for you to push on and hopefully get to back, back to where you were’.”

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Two years of toil

Phillips went from being a key England player, who helped Gareth Southgate’s men reach the Euro 2020 final, and a talisman at Leeds in the Premier League, to a £45 million (€53.5m , $59m) City flop.

He has barely had a look-in at the Etihad since his 2022 summer move from Leeds, with Spain international Rodri firmly ahead of him in the pecking order.

As a result, he lost his place in the England squad, went onto have a disastrous loan in the second half of last season at West Ham, and he may have played his last game for the Cityzens.

But there is still a very capable, quality player there – one that former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa got the best out of as a defensive midfielder.

Perhaps, under McKenna’s guidance at Ipswich, and with a good run of games under his belt, Phillips can recapture the form that he showed from a few short years ago.

READ MORE: Man City readying ultimate January swoop to haunt Liverpool and offset Rodri injury

Man City eye Dortmund ace

According to reports, City have joined Liverpool, and more, in the race to sign Borussia Dortmund winger Karim Adeyemi, following an impressive start to the season.

The 22-year-old scored a hat-trick in his side’s 7-1 Champions League win over Celtic earlier this week and has five goals and five assists in all competitions this term.

Elsewhere, midfield target Martin Zubimendi has explained why he snubbed Liverpool to stay at Real Sociedad, despite the La Liga team agreeing on a big-money move for the Spaniard.

He admitted: “It is true that there was a lot of noise. I went through uncomfortable moments. The best thing for me was to stay here and I am happy and at peace. There is a lot of noise because of the press but in the end everything is easier than all that.”

City are keeping tabs on the 25-year-old, while they also try and pin striker Erling Haaland to a new contract. However, the 24-year-old reportedly wants a release clause inserted into a deal, with Barcelona reportedly monitoring his future closely.

GO DEEPER: Man City ‘in talks’ to sign Serie A star as Pep Guardiola ramps up Rodri replacement plan

A shadow of his former self