‘The worst position to be in’… Nedum Onuoha says 27-year-old Man City player needs to leave
Nedum Onuoha has suggested that Kalvin Phillips should leave Manchester City in January following Pep Guardiola’s recent comments about him.
In a recent press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League match against Luton Town, Guardiola apologised to Phillips for not giving him regular game time, before adding that he struggles to visualise seeing the 27-year-old in his ideal team.
This has now led to one pundit and former City player weighing in on the situation and sharing his thoughts on Phillips and his situation at the Manchester club.
Onuoha assesses Phillips situation after Guardiola comments
Speaking in a recent video shared on the ESPN FC YouTube channel, Onuoha said this on the matter.
He said: “You can have control, if you want to play him you can just play him. It’s almost as if there’s something over his head that says he can’t play him. If you don’t like him, fair enough, and I think we can see that when we see every other player in that City squad start in midfield ahead of him then I think the writing is kind of on the wall.
“If I was Kalvin Phillips and I heard someone say I just don’t visualise you in the team, it probably sounds worse. Just say something else, that sounds horrendous. ‘I just don’t see you in the field for the way my team wants to play,’ it’s deeply humbling, but to give Kalvin Phillips his credit, he’s been a good guy apparently and I think in some ways it’s made it worse for Guardiola because if he was a bad guy, he’d just say off you go.
“It’s so weird, I almost look at him like he’s a really young player now because I’m seeing him trying. I’m seeing him doing things in the warm-ups, seeing him train and it’s like this is the worst position to be in when all you’re doing is training and taking a space on the bench because there’s nobody else there.
“But still, January is around the corner so hopefully he can get something good and get his career started again.”
City signed the England international back in the 2022 summer transfer window from Leeds United in a deal worth £45m.
Since then, the midfielder has made 29 appearances for the Citizens across all competitions, starting just five of them.
This shows how hard Phillips has found it to get any sort of significant game time on a regular basis at the club.
Bearing in mind how the former Leeds player said that his aim is to play regularly enough that he isn’t at risk of missing out on a place in the England squad for the Euros, we agree with Onuoha that a move away from City next month could be the ideal next step for him.