Kalvin decline: Southgate ignores ‘agreement’ as disastrous West Ham loan costs Phillips his Euros place

Kalvin Phillips was told he had to leave Manchester City and play more regularly to keep his England place for the Euros. He forgot to read the fine print.

‘West Ham United sign England international Kalvin Phillips on loan,’ reads the headline on the Premier League club’s official website from January. By the time the deal expires this summer, two of those words will be superfluous. And it won’t be because David Moyes or indeed anyone other than Manchester City are desperate to make the move permanent.

An England career which started in not-quite unique but certainly rare fashion might well be ending in surely unprecedented circumstances. Phillips made his Three Lions debut before his Premier League bow, was genuinely brilliant at Euro 2020 with only a handful of caps to his name before the tournament, and established himself thereafter as integral to Gareth Southgate’s system and squad.

Then he joined the reigning Premier League champions and was described by one of the greatest managers in the history of the game as the “perfect” replacement for a truly phenomenal midfielder in Fernandinho, but struggled to find his feet at club level, sent spiralling by the traditional hurdles of a new signing’s first Pep Guardiola year.

Through that, he maintained his England place to increasing levels of public derision and anger. Since joining Manchester City, Phillips has made more starts for his country and the club that borrowed him in January (six combined) than the one which paid £42m for him almost two years ago (five). It has gone catastrophically badly.

But any suggestion that the Guardiola “overweight” saga might have represented a personal and professional nadir fails to take into account the transformative powers of spending a few months at West Ham.

It had long been readily apparent by this winter that Phillips would have to leave the Etihad to play regular football and solidify an England place which had ever so slightly started to slip from his grasp.

“I know that I need to be playing games and competing every weekend. I’m going to have to make a decision on my future over the next few months,” the 27-year-old said in October, commanding reported interest from Newcastle, Bayern Munich and Juventus.

“Gareth Southgate just says that for me to keep my spot I have to be playing games. That’s what I want to do. I have agreed with Gareth on that,” he continued. And there is no suggestion that the England manager has stitched him up by neglecting to mention that “playing games” is not in and of itself as much of a prerequisite as the seemingly nebulous concept of “playing well”, but it is striking how Phillips might have had a better chance of being picked for the Euros if he had stayed in Rodri’s shadow and not tried to remind everyone he is a professional footballer.

It has been a laughably counter-productive loan, from setting up Dominic Solanke on his debut to the half-time introduction in a 6-0 home thrashing against Arsenal and the thoughtless red card in defeat to Nottingham Forest. Phillips has played 280 minutes across seven appearances and won once.

Manchester City have had the value of their asset entirely decimated, and any hope West Ham might have harboured of Phillips helping turn their season around probably ended when he was taken off at half-time against Burnley, with the Hammers 2-0 down at home in a game they would go on to draw when they realised at least offering the pretence of a midfield would perhaps be useful.

“You’ve just asked me about the score at half-time. That probably says enough,” was the uncharacteristically tetchy response from Moyes when asked soon after the match about why he took Phillips off. Given a little more time to consider his thoughts, the manager was somehow more damning in his faint praise, saying:

“I don’t select the England team, but consistent performance is key to earning a spot, and hopefully, they’ve demonstrated that. The England manager has plenty of quality players to choose from, so being considered is significant.”

The subsequent idea Moyes offered, that Phillips was among those suffering from a potential “hangover” after their European excursions four days before, was slightly undermined by the midfielder playing nine minutes in the defeat to Freiburg.

And as “confident” as the Scot is that “things will improve for him here,” the more relevant points are that they certainly won’t for England, nor for Manchester City, and that it’s difficult to see how much further this Kalvin decline could possibly go.

READ MORE: Solanke snub or Palmer put-down would be among harshest England tournament squad omissions ever