It's clear as anything that Romeo Lavia should've been kept around this season and it would've saved the money we're likely to lose on Phillips and the 40mil of activating Lavia's buy-back. Plus he'd likely have seen more game time and put in better performances.
I'd say Phillips' city career has easily been the most underwhelming of all the first team signings. At first you're thinking 45mil for a player who will give Rodri rest playing at 6 and maybe even do a stint in 8 very occasionally and should hopefully within the season get to grips with the system. If you couldn't stream citys recent FA cup games you'd potentially forget he was even part of the squad.
I'm aware Phillips can't choose to play himself and part of it lies with Guardiola, city's current position and form meaning we dont want to rest Rodri who's been arguably our best player this season. But we look elsewhere at players who arguably didnt set the world alight for us in their first season... rodri himself, sane, mahrez. They all had more of an impact in their first season and actually benefitted from the playing time in important games to help adjust Even NOLITO had more of an impact in his first season than Phillips has had. A man most forget pep signed due to his insignificance that season.
By hardly seeing anything all season and hearing/reading relevant reports, I think it says enough, leeway would be given if he was 20-23 years old like some of the others mentioned and had to move across the world but my guy could get away without moving house after the transfer ffs, just disappointing.
