West Ham United’s new England international Kalvin Phillips is keen to make up for lost time after joining the Hammers.
The defensive midfielder, 28, first burst onto the scene with Leeds United and completed a move to Manchester City in summer 2022 after inspiring his hometown club to promotion and excelling in the Premier League.
Phillips, who joined the Irons on a loan deal for the remainder of the 2023/24 season in January, has a burning desire to show what he has to offer in Claret and Blue and is looking forward to playing regularly again after a relative lack of action over the past 18 months.
“It’s obviously a massive decision for me and my family, but I think it was a decision that I needed to make because I wasn’t getting much game time,” he told Sunday’s Official Programme for the Premier League visit of Arsenal, which features a free A3 poster of the new No11. “The one thing that I wanted when I left Man City in January was to be back playing and to be enjoying myself playing football as well. When you don’t play football for so long, you kind of feel a little bit useless because you’ve not been doing anything. So, for me, it was just more coming to a good club with good fans and just enjoying my football again.
“I was very sad when I knew that my next step had to be to move on, but I got over that quite quickly and was just more excited than anything to get down here and see the place and see how London is, which is very busy. I was very excited to get going.”
If things have turned out differently, Phillips could have joined David Moyes’ side directly from Leeds in 2022, but the opportunity to join the Premier League champions was understandably too big to turn down.
However, a chat with England teammate, friend and former Hammer Declan Rice – who he could come up against on Sunday – and Sporting Director Mark Noble sold him on a belated move to London Stadium, as he looks to reignite his career.
He added: “I know Dec quite well and I spoke to him about the Club, and he spoke very highly, and he loves the Club. He just said, ‘if there’s a place you are going to go, go to West Ham because you’ll love it there and have an amazing time because they’ve got great people’. I spoke to Nobes too and I can just tell by the way Nobes and Dec spoke about it that I’m going to like it here.
“There was obviously speculation two years ago and how for the past two years West Ham have wanted to sign me and I think the kind of person that I am, I kind of wanted to give David Moyes and myself the opportunity to try and work together for West Ham and hopefully we’ll go on to do good things.
“I think we’re climbing towards the Champions League spots as a Club. I think, with the pedigree of the players that we have got and how well we’ve been performing, we’re not going to drop below what they’ve done in the first half of the season. When everyone is fit, this team can cause anyone real problems.”
Phillips believes he’s a better player than he was 18 months ago despite little game time – and sees similarities in the system that Moyes has implemented at the Hammers from his time at Elland Road.
“We’ve got very exciting wingers and very exciting strikers and forward players,” he observed. “I’m just here to do a defensive job and hopefully chip in with a few more goals. I look at myself and I’m a confident player and training with the best players in the world does rub off on you. I’m excited to get going and have a few games under my belt.”
