A player who left Manchester City in the January transfer window has admitted his happiness at the club faded after Pep Guardiola publicly called him "overweight".
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After making only 31 appearances for the Citizens in a season and a half following his arrival from Leeds United in 2022, England midfielder Kalvin Phillips joined West Ham United on loan in this past window.
In addition to his on-field struggles, Guardiola labelled him "overweight" upon his return from the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with the player admitting that was somewhat of a turning point for him in Manchester.
"When Pep came out and said I was overweight, he was right to do so but there are different ways to go about it," he said in a recent interview, according to the Mirror.
"I did not disagree with him but obviously it took a big knock on my confidence and how I felt at City I would probably say that. And my family were not happy about it, either. Especially my mum."
Phillips, who took a while to be named in City's matchday squads after returning from the Middle East in December 2022, added that Guardiola was annoyed with him for not getting back to training earlier than he was expected to.
"People can say overweight – overweight for some people is like 10kg. I was probably 1.5kg over my weight target," he continued.
"I think obviously Pep was frustrated that I didn't come back into training early but it was just miscommunication between the people that worked at City and myself.
"I got told to be back on a certain date and I was always going to go back earlier than that date anyway because I hadn't played that much for England during the tournament.
"I'd just recovered from my shoulder injury so Pep wanted me to come in the day after we finished the tournament so I could be involved in the friendlies. I never got that information because if he asked me to have been there, I would have been there."
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Phillips has made three appearances for the Hammers since his move to London, with West Ham having conceded 10 goals and scored just once over the course of those three matches.
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