4 | Kalvin Phillips - 2024/25

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Lavinda Past said:
I agree that he was a poor buy but I don't agree that Pep publicly humiliating him could be considered anywhere near 'minor'.

It was nasty, classless, and completely unnecessary for Pep to go public about Kalvin's weight. The matter should have been dealt with privately in Pep's office.

I can't imagine for one minute that Kalvin is the only Pep player to come back overweight, yet we don’t see him calling anyone else out like this.

Pep publicly 'marked his card', Kalvin lost heart. Absolutely shite man management by Pep in my opinion.
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All of this is true. Aguero once came back overweight and Pep didn't savage him.

Ultimately, the point of man management is to get players to perform better. The fact that Phillips became less motivated, more withdrawn and played worse shows it was an objectively bad decision.

Pep is the greatest manager of all time, but even God makes mistakes. Look at Liverpool existing.
 
Phillips didn’t even turn up for his big unveiling outside the stadium because was too ill….. Says a lot about him and mentality!!
 
His ‘statue’ would have done more than when he ‘was at City’ and West Ham and Ipswich……
 
Lavinda Past said:
I agree that he was a poor buy but I don't agree that Pep publicly humiliating him could be considered anywhere near 'minor'.

It was nasty, classless, and completely unnecessary for Pep to go public about Kalvin's weight. The matter should have been dealt with privately in Pep's office.

I can't imagine for one minute that Kalvin is the only Pep player to come back overweight, yet we don’t see him calling anyone else out like this.

Pep publicly 'marked his card', Kalvin lost heart. Absolutely shite man management by Pep in my opinion.
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It’s not the 1990’s anymore. When you’re paid millions a year after somebody pays tens of millions for your services you cannot be overweight.

And regardless of that opinion, it wasn’t the fact that Phillips came back a few lbs overweight and Pep humiliated him, let’s look back at the time.

He was bought for a reported £42m on a reported £150k a week.

After three substitute appearances totalling 20 mins he was sent for shoulder surgery a month into the season and his focus at that time was not anything to do with Manchester City, but to be part of the World Cup squad in November.

He returned playing 40 minutes against Chelsea in the EFL Cup on 9th November and 5 days later was selected in the World Cup squad.

During the World Cup he played a total of 40 minutes over just two games and England were sent home on 9th December.

City had an upcoming game in the EFL Cup on 22nd December against Liverpool.

All World Cup selected players were given time off following their staggered exits.

Phillips instead of thinking “I’ve only played 60 mins for my new club and only 100 mins in total in 3 months, I’m going to go back to the CFA and work my arse off and hit the ground running for the game against Liverpool in 12 days time” like Ake and Laporte did.

He thought, I deserve a break in New York.

And when called out for coming back overweight, instead of owning it by saying he indulged and was unprofessional, he said the following:

“'I'd gone to New York for three or four days after Qatar. I'd flown all day. I'd had breakfast, lunch, dinner and landed. Slept during the flight as well. And straight into football. I'd had a full day of eating. There is water retention and stuff on a flight. It was a misunderstanding really.”

Of course Pep was pissed off and had every right to call him out.

Grealish also went to New York at the same time, but he had played 22 games for club and country up to that time, didn’t go near the hot dogs and more importantly didn’t clock back in hours after being on a 7 hour flight overweight. He played in the Liverpool game on the 22nd December, got back up to speed in the subsequent games and look how important he was to the team that eventually won the treble.

Alvarez WON the World Cup, flew to Argentina to celebrate and came back 7 days later not overweight, not tired, not unfit. A true professional with an elite mentality.

I think Phillips footballing ability is average but his mentality for an elite footballer is one of the weakest I have known.
 
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WNRH said:
It’s not the 1990’s anymore. When you’re paid millions a year after somebody pays tens of millions for your services you cannot be overweight.

And regardless of that opinion, it wasn’t the fact that Phillips came back a few lbs overweight and Pep humiliated him, let’s look back at the time.

He was bought for a reported £42m on a reported £150k a week.

After three substitute appearances totalling 20 mins he was sent for shoulder surgery a month into the season and his focus at that time was not anything to do with Manchester City, but to be part of the World Cup squad in November.

He returned playing 40 minutes against Chelsea in the EFL Cup on 9th November and 5 days later was selected in the World Cup squad.

During the World Cup he played a total of 40 minutes over just two games and England were sent home on 9th December.

City had an upcoming game in the EFL Cup on 22nd December against Liverpool.

All World Cup selected players were given time off following their staggered exits.

Phillips instead of thinking “I’ve only played 60 mins for my new club and only 100 mins in total in 3 months, I’m going to go back to the CFA and work my arse off and hit the ground running for the game against Liverpool in 12 days time” like Ake and Laporte did.

He thought, I deserve a break in New York.

And when called out for coming back overweight, instead of owning it by saying he indulged and was unprofessional, he said the following:

“'I'd gone to New York for three or four days after Qatar. I'd flown all day. I'd had breakfast, lunch, dinner and landed. Slept during the flight as well. And straight into football. I'd had a full day of eating. There is water retention and stuff on a flight. It was a misunderstanding really.”

Of course Pep was pissed off and had every right to call him out.

Grealish also went to New York at the same time, but he had played 22 games for club and country up to that time, didn’t go near the hot dogs and more importantly didn’t clock back in hours after being on a 7 hour flight overweight. He played in the Liverpool game on the 22nd December, got back up to speed in the subsequent games and look how important he was to the team that eventually won the treble.

I think Phillips footballing ability is average but his mentality for an elite footballer is one of the weakest I have known.
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Nail. Head
 
WNRH said:
It’s not the 1990’s anymore. When you’re paid millions a year after somebody pays tens of millions for your services you cannot be overweight.

And regardless of that opinion, it wasn’t the fact that Phillips came back a few lbs overweight and Pep humiliated him, let’s look back at the time.

He was bought for a reported £42m on a reported £150k a week.

After three substitute appearances totalling 20 mins he was sent for shoulder surgery a month into the season and his focus at that time was not anything to do with Manchester City, but to be part of the World Cup squad in November.

He returned playing 40 minutes against Chelsea in the EFL Cup on 9th November and 5 days later was selected in the World Cup squad.

During the World Cup he played a total of 40 minutes over just two games and England were sent home on 9th December.

City had an upcoming game in the EFL Cup on 22nd December against Liverpool.

All World Cup selected players were given time off following their staggered exits.

Phillips instead of thinking “I’ve only played 60 mins for my new club and only 100 mins in total in 3 months, I’m going to go back to the CFA and work my arse off and hit the ground running for the game against Liverpool in 12 days time” like Ake and Laporte did.

He thought, I deserve a break in New York.

And when called out for coming back overweight, instead of owning it by saying he indulged and was unprofessional, he said the following:

“'I'd gone to New York for three or four days after Qatar. I'd flown all day. I'd had breakfast, lunch, dinner and landed. Slept during the flight as well. And straight into football. I'd had a full day of eating. There is water retention and stuff on a flight. It was a misunderstanding really.”

Of course Pep was pissed off and had every right to call him out.

Grealish also went to New York at the same time, but he had played 22 games for club and country up to that time, didn’t go near the hot dogs and more importantly didn’t clock back in hours after being on a 7 hour flight overweight. He played in the Liverpool game on the 22nd December, got back up to speed in the subsequent games and look how important he was to the team that eventually won the treble.

Alvarez WON the World Cup, flew to Argentina to celebrate and came back 7 days later not overweight, not tired, not unfit. A true professional with an elite mentality.

I think Phillips footballing ability is average but his mentality for an elite footballer is one of the weakest I have known.
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That wasn’t strictly the accurate picture. Grealish was pictured with a huge American slice of greasy pizza which some on here lost their mind about a professional athlete eating.

Anyway, Phillips should have applied himself more. I don’t think there’s many disagreeing that Pep shouldn’t have pulled him up on his weight, just some believe it should have been done in club and not via the national press.
 
BlueTG said:
That wasn’t strictly the accurate picture. Grealish was pictured with a huge American slice of greasy pizza which some on here lost their mind about a professional athlete eating.

Anyway, Phillips should have applied himself more. I don’t think there’s many disagreeing that Pep shouldn’t have pulled him up on his weight, just some believe it should have been done in club and not via the national press.
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Exactly my point throughout this thread. Pep's action in relation to Kalvin Phillips said a lot more about him than it did about Kalvin.

I think we all had doubts over Kalvin's ability at 'elite' or even mid-PL level when we signed him. He's simply not good enough. That doesn't mean that the coach should publicly humiliate him... Just sideline him and shift him out quietly.
 
BlueTG said:
That wasn’t strictly the accurate picture. Grealish was pictured with a huge American slice of greasy pizza which some on here lost their mind about a professional athlete eating.

Anyway, Phillips should have applied himself more. I don’t think there’s many disagreeing that Pep shouldn’t have pulled him up on his weight, just some believe it should have been done in club and not via the national press.
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Agreed.
 
Lavinda Past said:
Exactly my point throughout this thread. Pep's action in relation to Kalvin Phillips said a lot more about him than it did about Kalvin.

I think we all had doubts over Kalvin's ability at 'elite' or even mid-PL level when we signed him. He's simply not good enough. That doesn't mean that the coach should publicly humiliate him... Just sideline him and shift him out quietly.
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normskih said:
Agreed.
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I'm never in favour of calling out players publicly. Never. It usually backfires. But it does occur to me that, for once, Pep might have decided to do a Mourinho. That is, very occasionally, a public kick up the backside can anger a player and make him think “Right, I'll show you, you fucker!”
It's at least a possible interpretation. It's the more striking in that in a press conference, although he was being goaded, Pep absolutely refused to call out Cancelo. Who actually gave him far more reason to be annoyed with him.
Just my alternative take, anyway…
Incidentally, are both these players still on our books? If so, it's high time we found a taker.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
I'm never in favour of calling out players publicly. Never. It usually backfires. But it does occur to me that, for once, Pep might have decided to do a Mourinho. That is, very occasionally, a public kick up the backside can anger a player and make him think “Right, I'll show you, you fucker!”
It's at least a possible interpretation. It's the more striking in that in a press conference, although he was being goaded, Pep absolutely refused to call out Cancelo. Who actually gave him far more reason to be annoyed with him.
Just my alternative take, anyway…
Incidentally, are both these players still on our books? If so, it's high time we found a taker.
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Agree with you. And tbh if a player is that fragile that they can't handle the press being told they returned overweight, after returning overweight, then they haven't got the mentality to be a top player anyway.
 
Guardiola has always been prickly about players ‘misbehaving’, particularly in and around the hectic Christmas period, when seasons can be shaped. Grealish and Foden also earned his displeasure long before Phillips was sent to see Marjory from Fatfighters.
 
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