Kalvin Phillips has hit out at Pep Guardiola for going public and calling him overweight after returning to Manchester City following the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Guardiola rarely used Phillips during his spell at the Etihad Stadium.]
That led to the England midfielder joining West Ham on loan in January. The 28-year-old was taunted by Manchester United fans over the ordeal last week.
And Phillips has explained the impact it had on his family, particularly his mum. “When Pep came out and said I was overweight, he was right to do so but there are different ways to go about it,” the ex-Leeds star said.
“I did not disagree with him, but obviously it took a big knock on my confidence and how I felt at City, I would probably say that. My family was not happy about it, either. Especially my mum.”
And he claims Guardiola was irked by the timeframe in which he returned to training after the Qatar tournament.
He added: “People can say overweight – overweight for some people is like 10kg. I was probably 1.5kg over my weight target. Pep was obviously frustrated that I didn’t come back into training early, but it was just miscommunication between the people that worked at City and myself.
“I got told to be back on a certain date and I was always going to go back earlier than that date anyway because I hadn’t played that much for England during the tournament.
“I’d just recovered from my shoulder injury so Pep wanted me to come in the day after we finished the tournament so I could be involved in the friendlies. I never got that information because if he asked me to have been there, I would have been there.”
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