Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola commented on the future of Kalvin Phillips, after the pre-season defeat to Celtic.
City got their pre-season tour of the US off to a 4-3 losing start against the Scottish giants.
City went in 3-1 down at the break after goals for Celtic from Nicolas Kuhn (brace) and Kyogo Furuhashi, and one from Oscar Bobb from City.
Maximo Perrone and Erling Haaland got City back on level terms, but then substitute Luis Palma got the winner.
Results, of course, are not so important in pre-season. But Guardiola will be disappointed nonetheless.
One man who featured in the game in the early hours this morning was Kalvin Phillips – and Guardiolla spoke about his future after the game.
Pep Guardiola comments on Kalvin Phillips after Man City defeat to Celtic
Phillips is a player who has been widely tipped to leave this summer.
Last term, he went out on loan to West Ham United, with the club hoping that he could rediscover his mojo.
This did not happen, and Phillips’ struggles continued. He appeared to lack confidence in an Irons shirt, just as he did for City.
Phillips has been linked with a loan move to Everton in recent days, with Fulham also keen.
But for now he remains at City and last night he did feature against Celtic, and after the game Pep spoke about the chance of Phillips remaining at the club for 2024/25.
He said: “He’s training really well and made a really good first-half. He came from an injury, that’s why we didn’t give him more minutes. But we’ll see, like all situations I don’t know what’s going to happen. He knows the situation, and we’ll see.”
Phillips struggled against Celtic, with the Manchester Evening News noting that ‘he could in fact have been making his situation worse’. He was also ‘yards off the play’ at times.
Phillips staying seems unlikely
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By the sounds of how he played last night, it seems unlikely that Phillips will be staying put at City for 2024/25.
In recent days Pep was happy to insist that Kevin De Bruyne would be staying at the club, but with Phillips he failed to give a definitive answer, and that would point towards him going, the fact he didn’t give assurances.
But of course, it all depends on whether City can get a deal on their terms.
Everton are said to want the player on loan but with an option to buy and City apparently want an obligation.
We will see what happens, but it would seem Phillips remains unlikely to stick around.
