Kalvin Phillips admits to feeling 'useless' and 'sad' at Man City before making West Ham switch

Phillips, who enjoyed seven successful years at his boyhood club Leeds, made a significant move to Manchester City in July 2022 for a reported £42 million ($52m). Despite harbouring ambitions of becoming a regular starter under manager Pep Guardiola, Phillips struggled to secure consistent playing time during his 18-month stint at the Etihad Stadium. With only five starts and 26 substitute appearances across all competitions, the midfielder admitted feeling "useless" due to his lack of involvement.

Speaking to the official club media of West Ham, Phillips said: “The one thing that I wanted when I left Man City in January was to be back playing and to be enjoying myself playing football as well. When you don’t play football for so long, you kind of feel a little bit useless because you’ve not been doing anything. So, for me, it was just more coming to a good club with good fans and just enjoying my football again.

“I was very sad when I knew that my next step had to be to move on, but I got over that quite quickly and was just more excited than anything to get down here and see the place and see how London is, which is very busy. I was very excited to get going.”

Phillips revealed that having candid conversations with West Ham's sporting director Mark Noble and former team-mate Declan Rice, who spoke highly of the club, played a pivotal role in his decision-making process.

"I know Dec quite well and I spoke to him about the club, and he spoke very highly, and he loves the club," said Phillips. "He just said: 'If there's a place you are going to go, go to West Ham because you'll love it there and have an amazing time because they've got great people'. I spoke to Nobes too and I can just tell by the way Nobes and Dec spoke about it that I'm going to like it here."

The English midfielder is excited to work with David Moyes who has already chalked out a well-defined blueprint for Phillips to follow.

"I'm just here to do a defensive job and hopefully chip in with a few more goals," he said.

"I look at myself and I'm a confident player and training with the best players in the world does rub off on you. I'm excited to get going and have a few games under my belt. We've got very exciting wingers and very exciting strikers and forward players. There was obviously speculation two years ago and how for the past two years West Ham have wanted to sign me and I think the kind of person that I am, I kind of wanted to give David Moyes and myself the opportunity to try and work together for West Ham and hopefully we'll go on to do good things.

"I think we're climbing towards the Champions League spots as a club. I think, with the pedigree of the players that we have got and how well we've been performing, we're not going to drop below what they've done in the first half of the season. When everyone is fit, this team can cause anyone real problems."

Phillips made his debut for West Ham against Bournemouth earlier in the month and is eager to cement his place in manager Moyes's starting lineup as quickly as possible. The Hammers next host Arsenal on Saturday and the midfielder will hope to put in an impressive shift against Mikel Arteta's troops to win over both the fans and his manager.