Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips has admitted that he was badly affected by Pep Guardiola’s claims that he was overweight.
Guardiola said in December that Phillips was overweight when he returned from World Cup duty with England and said that was the reason he was being left out of the team.
Phillips insists he was not too heavy and that the situation was simply a misunderstanding. Less than a week after his initial comments, Guardiola joked that Phillips “has the perfect body, so sexy”.
That was a low point of a tough campaign for the midfielder, 27, who has more trophies than league starts to show from his first season at the Etihad.
Reflecting on it on BBC Radio 5 Live, Phillips admitted: “I’d probably say it was a little bit hard to take just because of how much it was oversized and how many people started talking about it.
“I know the manager made his comments but I respected them. I, for me, wasn’t overweight, but obviously the manager saw it in a different way. I took it, did my best to try and get as fit as possible and I was on the bench for the Leeds game straight after that.
“I was fit for every game since then. It was just one of those things where it was a misunderstanding between me and some staff members. You will see a lot more of it in the documentary and how I got into it all.”
Phillips is set to be the focus of a new Amazon Prime documentary, Kalvin Phillips: The Road to City, which will be available from July 19. It will give a behind-the-scenes look at his move to City and his struggles over the last 12 months.
On that point, he added: “I spoke to quite a few of the lads about their first season at City and how difficult they found it.
“They said exactly the same thing, saying it takes at least 12 months for somebody to really understand what the manager wants you to do, the way he wants you to play and how he wants you to work.
“Hopefully, next season will be a lot better for me. I am just looking forward to getting my head down, seeing the lads again and just getting the season underway.”
