Kalvin Phillips has explained why he has decided to join Manchester City from Leeds United this summer.
The Citizens have confirmed the signing of the England international for a fee in the region of £45m - becoming their fourth arrival of the transfer window after Julian Alvarez, Erling Haaland and Stefan Ortega all made the switch to the Etihad Stadium. He has signed a six-year deal which will keep him at the club until 2028.
However, this ends Phillips' time at Leeds where he has spent the entirety of his professional career. Phillips came through the ranks at the Whites and helped them reach the Premier League in 2019/20 under Marcelo Bielsa. He played a starring role the season after as they finished ninth, earning him a starting place in the England side.
Phillips started every game for the Three Lions at Euro 2020 as they reached the final but ended up losing against Italy on penalties. But the 26-year-old would struggle with injuries and fitness issues last season and missed over three months of action after suffering a hamstring issue back in December.
Having played the final eight Premier League games of the season as Leeds survived on the final day, Phillips has earned himself a big-money move to the reigning champions. One of Phillips' main reasons behind the switch is the chance to work with Guardiola as the Spanish coach has history of improving players in the past.
"It’s one of the main reasons I wanted to come to City, to improve my game in loads of different ways," Phillips told mancity.com. It’s hard for me to say right now how I’m going to play a role in the team because it’s very difficult to come into a team of eighteen superstars.
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"I’m looking forward to just getting to know the boys and getting my feet firmly on the ground and work from there. I did play in the Euros final and to be honest the nerves didn’t really hit me when I was playing it, it was more after that how big the game was.
"I deal very well with situations like that, I think I’m pretty suited to playing big games. I’ve not experienced many of them but hopefully this season I will do."
Phillips leaves the club with more games for Leeds than the likes of Alan Smith, Jonny Howson and Luciano Becchio. He made his debut at Molineux in a 4-3 defeat in April 2015 and his last game proved to be the final-day win at Brentford in May.
