My biggest career mistake – Kevin De Bruyne cries out 

My biggest career mistake – Kevin De Bruyne cries out 

Home Sport Kalvin Phillips was criticized for his unprofessionalism by Chris Sutton for showing up overweight on his return to Man City, which he considers inexcusable for a professional athlete, following the midfielder’s discussion about Pep Guardiola’s remarks.

Kalvin Phillips was criticized for his unprofessionalism by Chris Sutton for showing up overweight on his return to Man City, which he considers inexcusable for a professional athlete, following the midfielder’s discussion about Pep Guardiola’s remarks.

 

 

Kalvin Phillips was ‘unprofessional’ to return to Man City overweight, Chris Sutton tells It’s All Kicking Off, as he says ‘it’s unforgivable’ for a pro athlete after the midfielder opened up on Pep Guardiola’s comments

 

Chris Sutton has slammed ‘unprofessional’ and ‘unforgivable’ Kalvin Phillips for returning to Manchester City ‘overweight’ following the World Cup in Qatar as he is being ‘paid tens of thousands of pounds a week’ to be fit and healthy.

 

The 28-year-old midfielder was part of Gareth Southgate’s England squad which reached the quarter-finals of the tournament in Qatar.

 

 

Phillips was left on the bench for much of the competition with a shoulder injury and was slammed by Man City boss Pep Guardiola for a perceived lack of fitness upon his return.

 

Speaking on the latest episode of It’s All Kicking Off, Sutton agreed Guardiola could have handled the situation different and avoided bringing the issue into the public domain, but said Phillips was in the wrong for being overweight.

 

 

 

Chris Sutton says it was ‘unprofessional’ and ‘unforgivable’ for Kalvin Phillips to return to the club ‘overweight’ following the World Cup in Qatar

 

 

Sutton says Phillips he is being paid tens of thousands of pounds a week to be fit for Guardiola

 

The midfielder was part of the England squad at the World Cup with England despite an injury

 

Sutton said Phillips should have been in the best possible physical condition to give him the best chance of ousting Rodri from the team and making an impression on Guardiola.

 

 

Sutton said: ‘I really like Kalvin Phillips. He’s come onto Five Live. He’s highly articulate. Things didn’t work out for him at Manchester City.

 

 

‘He’s obviously very upset about the public nature of Pep bringing that stuff about being overweight into the public domain. And that’s clearly affected him, affected his family and affected his mum.

 

‘But I actually think the bigger thing in all this is that he shouldn’t have been overweight. You know, he’s a professional athlete. He signed a contract with Manchester City going up a level to win trophies, to compete with Rodri.

 

 

‘He can’t affect what Rodri does as a player. Rodri is a tremendous player. He can’t do anything about that, but what he can do is he can get himself into the best possible physical condition to give him the best chance of ousting Rodri from the team and making an impression on Pep Guardiola.

 

‘So for any player, and I’m not going to say in this day and age, but things were different back in my time. The way certain players conditioned themselves or didn’t condition themselves would be a better way of putting it.

 

‘But I think it’s unprofessional for him to be overweight, it’s as simple as that. And I do get what he says about the public nature of it, but that’s just Pep Guardiola being totally frustrated.

 

 

 

 

‘You know, he spent a fair few quid on Kalvin Phillips and that’s him coming out and just showing his disappointment about a player who’s been unprofessional. So… whether he should have done that publicly or not, you know, that’s up for debate.’

 

Sutton said Phillips should have gotten himself into the best physical condition to give him the best chance of ousting Rodri from the team and making an impression on Guardiola

 

The midfielder struggle for a place in the City squad and decided to move on loan to West Ham

 

 

When asked whether three pounds was a lot of weight, Sutton said: ‘It’s sort of irrelevant. If he’s overweight, he’s overweight. It’s unprofessional. It’s unforgivable really for a player to be overweight. You know, he signed a contract with Manchester City.

 

‘I just don’t quite understand. Players can have bad times at clubs. And we talk about my time at Chelsea every time we come on the pod in some way, shape, or form. That can happen.

 

 

‘But you’ve got to give yourself the best possible chance. And I don’t think he’s done that. If he’s overweight, he’s overweight. And Pep calling him out, he’s called him out for a reason. You’re a professional athlete. He’s being paid tens of thousands of pounds a week.

 

 

‘And you sign a contract, you have to give your all. He also said, which surprised me a little bit, that he’d lost his fire and lost his enthusiasm the last 18 months. They’re paying him an absolute fortune.

 

‘It’s okay being candid and honest, but there’ll be Manchester City fans thinking, blimey, you know, you weren’t all in. I thought that when you signed a contract, you signed as a player to be all in, to give your all.’

 

Phillips has since been sent on loan to West Ham, where he will spend the remainder of the season.

 

 

He was left on the bench for the Hammers’ 6-0 drubbing by Arsenal but came on at half-time, when his new side were already 4-0 down.