Kalvin Phillips Woes…

After eight seasons in Leeds United’s first team, Phillips played a key part in keeping the club in the Premier League a year after they won the Championship.

His standout form also earned him a central role in England’s run to the Euro 2020 final (played in 2021), and his switch to Manchester City was widely seen as the next big step in his career.

Instead, it turned into arguably his toughest spell.

Arriving at City before the 2022-23 season, he faced the task of breaking into a midfield that had just won the league.

That challenge grew when, after only one Premier League cameo, he suffered a training-ground shoulder injury that sidelined him for nearly three months.

Out from September, he returned in November just as the domestic season paused for the World Cup in Qatar.

On resumption, he was competing with Rodri, who further cemented himself as City’s preferred holding midfielder.

After making only two substitute appearances for England at the World Cup, Phillips came back in December to find himself left out of City’s squad for the first game back against Liverpool, with Pep Guardiola publicly calling him “overweight” and not fit to play.

By the time he was back in contention, City had hit their stride, losing only three of their final 22 league matches and clinching a fifth title in six seasons.

They then completed a historic treble—the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League—with Rodri scoring the winner against Inter Milan in the European final.