Kalvin Phillips, a regular Leeds and England midfielder has been moved around this summer. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal… they were all after him, but all of a sudden, without much fuss and media reports, Manchester City came in, made a bid and singed the player just like that, for a 55 million euros. But after a few weeks, it seems that they had one advantage over their rival, and we are not talking about money, we are talking about loyalty. 🎙 Kalvin Phillips : “There was never any chance of me going to Man United. You know my loyalty to Leeds. My family are all Leeds fans.” @Jack_Gaughan 🏴— UtdPlug (@UtdPlug) July 20, 2022 Phillips is a boyhood Leeds fan who had been at the club since he was 14 and made 235 appearances for the Yorkshire club, scoring 14 goals. He was also an integral part of Gareth Southgate’s England side that reached the final of Euro 2020 last year and has 23 international caps. His whole family are Leeds supporters, and unlike some other players (John Terry comes to mind first), he didn’t want to aggravate his family. While Chelsea and Arsenal never reached the requested amount of cash, Manchester United had other problems. „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 honored 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. I don’t know, 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” explained Phillips to the media in USA, where the Citizens played their first preseason game in Houston. He’s not a glamourous player, but he made the champions tick: Rodri wants even moreEven with such a high transfer fee, the England international knows that his place is the first 11 is not guaranteed. In fact, he only has to look at his new teammate and the most expensive British player Jack Grealish to see the harsh reality of being in such a big club and facing competition every day. Apart from that, Phillips will have an advantage since he played under famous coach Marcelo Bielsa, who’s credited as one of the best in the world by Pep Guardiola, but will also face another role with the Citizens.„It’s a risk and reward thing. I want to come here and prove myself against the best players in the world. I know there will be times I’m pulling my hair out because it is so difficult but that is what I wanted. At Leeds I was the guy who needed to play every game, at City that isn’t the case. I need to get my head around that. At the Euros it was new to me but I did reasonably well. Everything Marcelo taught me was a lot of movement without the ball, creating space for yourself to get on the ball. With City, it is moving into spaces to help team-mates get on the ball or getting in position to turn on the ball and play forward all the time. It was the opportunity to be coached by Pep. I couldn’t turn it down. Even if Pep’s only here for one more year it will hopefully be a good year“ said Philips. ##NAJAVA_MECA_6517437##
