Richard Keys has accused Pep Guardiola of double standards after the Manchester City manager was angered by Kalvin Phillips returning from the World Cup ‘overweight’.
Phillips was used for only 40 minutes as a substitute at the finals, having not started for City since his move from Leeds United in the close season due to a shoulder injury.
The England midfielder, who was left out of City’s squad for their Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool on Thursday night, will again be without 27-year-old Phillips, much to Guardiola frustration.
Phillips, who has played just 94 minutes of competitive football in an injury-plagued season, was told not to train with his team-mates when City’s England and Portugal players reported back from Qatar.
“He’s not injured, he arrived (back) overweight,” Guardiola said. “I don’t know (why). He didn’t arrive in the condition to do training sessions and to play.
“That’s why he cannot play. When he will be ready, he will play because we need him, we need him a lot.”
Asked if he was disappointed to see Phillips return in such condition, Guardiola added: “It’s a private conversation with Kalvin.”
BeIN Sports presenter Keys, however, took to Twitter to take aim at Guardiola for his remarks.
Posting the back page of the Daily Mirror, which splashed on the story, he wrote: ‘I’m wondering why Guardiola has exposed Phillips to ridicule for this ‘crime’.
‘Never a word when he used to leave [Sergio] Aguero out for the same offence. Strange.’
Aguero revealed back in October that Guardiola did once deem him ‘too fat’ to play after falling foul of the manager’s strict weight limits.
Aguero said: ‘If your ideal weight is 79-80kg and you were 80 kilos and 100 grams you would be fined and you don’t play.
‘But it can happen! You come across a little bit of chicken for example then you are going to be 50 grams over!’
Asked if he was ever consigned to the bench for being overweight, Aguero added: ‘Well the first season we were between fourth and third and he said “I left you out because you turned up fat this week.”
‘And what was I going to say? He was right… these things happen.
‘He said it in a good way. And at the time I didn’t really have his confidence. But I was always very respectful to the coaches.’
