Man City in the Championship! Could Kalvin Phillips get another chance as forgotten £42m ex-England international seeks to rediscover ‘smile’ during Sheffield United loan?

Phillips is currently competing at that level after heading back to Bramall Lane. He endured a tough time with the Blades last season, taking in just three appearances while suffering red card and knee injury misery.

Chris Wilder returned the 30-year-old to his Yorkshire roots over the summer, with first-team doors remaining blocked off in Manchester. There appeared to be no way back for the Leeds academy graduate at City.

He has been written off as a £42 million ($56m) flop, on the back of a 2022 transfer, with a star that once illuminated Euro 2020 with the England national team fading badly across recent campaigns.

Phillips does have Premier League and Champions League winners’ medals to his name, but tumbled out of favour quickly under Pep Guardiola at the Etihad. Moves to Sheffield are intended to bring a smile back to his face, with a seriously testing period having been endured.

Kilgallon, who represented Leeds and Sheffield United in his playing days and was speaking in association with FC 27 coins, told GOAL when asked about Phillips’ latest bid for redemption: “Was absolutely loved at Leeds United. The move to Man City, was it right for him?

“Maybe trophies and money in your back pocket but when he was moving there, you've got to be looking at the other midfielders that were in that squad at the time and thinking, how much football am I actually going to play here? [Kevin] De Bruyne, Rodri, in front of you, [Bernardo] Silva.

“It was the wrong move for him. Great, you make a load of money and you might have a few medals, but he's not been involved. It's probably the worst time of his whole career and he's making a bundle of money!

“You can see it on his face that he's not happy. I hope for him at Sheffield United, someone like Chris Wilder is definitely someone who can get him back playing. He's a character and probably sees a bit of an experiment or a bit of a task to get Kalvin Phillips back to where he was when he was playing for Leeds United.

“It's another massive club. Sheffield United fans, you're playing in front of 24, 25,000 every week. Hopefully he gets a smile back and starts knocking 25, 30 games a season out again. It's not happened for a long time.”

An unlikely reprieve may yet be earned at City, with the Blues seeing 114 FFP charges hang over their head. It has been suggested that a points deduction is on the way that would drop Enzo Maresca’s side out of the Premier League.

If that were to be the case, could Phillips - who remains under contract in Manchester through to the summer of 2028 - have a role to play for his parent club? Kilgallon said when that question was put to him: “Who knows? I heard that when he went to Sheffield United last year he was on 120 grand a week and I was saying he’s going to be nowhere near that now. And you said to me, he's got two years left at Man City. I went, ‘what?’ I couldn't believe it.

“I know with the Man City thing, that is a disaster, isn't it? It's gone off completely. There's so many opinions on it. But it's really not good news for the league and the clubs. There's so many different things popping up now, all the charges, and it's a disaster.”

Phillips, who has also spent time with West Ham and Ipswich after being deemed surplus to requirements at City, has been a regular for Sheffield United at the start of the 2026-27 campaign.

It may be that he ends up staying in those surroundings, with there a chance that his deal in Manchester is terminated and he becomes a free agent, but for now questions continue to be asked of what his future holds - with that discussion having dragged on for much longer than the 31-cap midfielder could ever have imagined.