Phillips never recovered from Guardiola weight comments

- Published
The stock of Kalvin Phillips, who is set to join Sheffield United again this summer, was at its highest when he was named England's player of the year at the end of the 2020-21 campaign.
He continued that form with Leeds United before Manchester City decided to pay £45m to sign the player the following summer, but his Blues career never took off.
He played only one Premier League game before the 2022 World Cup, where he made just two substitute appearances for England.
Phillips returned that December to find himself out of City's squad for their first game back against Liverpool. Guardiola publicly accused him of being "overweight" and not fit enough to train or play.
He never really recovered from that.
The midfielder attempted to reignite his career but endured unsuccessful spells at West Ham and Ipswich over the next two seasons.
There was a brief return in a City shirt last September when he featured for the final seven minutes of a Carabao Cup tie victory at Huddersfield, but it proved to be a false dawn.
A return to Sheffield United again this summer is Phillips' latest attempt to revive his career.