Roy Keane thinks Calvin Phillips will be “pissed off” after starting West Ham’s game with Manchester United on the bench less than two weeks after arriving from Manchester City. Phillips was heavily linked with a move away from the Etihad Stadium in January, but he moved to the London Stadium with the intention of playing regularly for the first team.
Phillips made just ten appearances for City all season and did not make a Premier League appearance, so his move to West Ham was seen as a good way to regain fitness and gain first-team experience ahead of England’s European Championship campaign in Germany this summer.
However, David Moyes left Phillips, who started Thursday’s game against Bournemouth in which Dominic Solanke capitalised on a mistake by the centre-half to put Cherries in front inside three minutes, on the bench for the away game at Old Trafford.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Keane said: ‘From a player’s point of view, I think he would have got angry. You go to get a few games, he’s played 70 minutes, he’s a sitting centre-half, you use your intelligence there in terms of when to sprint and when to sit.
“Obviously David Moyes will be concerned about that in terms of getting injuries quickly, but from a player’s point of view he has to get minutes under his belt, he has to get games. Remember he’s on loan from City, he’s going to Old Trafford and he’s sitting on the bench now. David Moyes is an experienced manager, of course, but I think from a player’s point of view he will be upset.”
Newcastle United were interested in signing Phillips last month but pulled out of a potential deal for the centre-forward for financial reasons. A full package for Phillips would have reportedly cost the Magpies around £7 million including wages and a loan, but Eddie Howe revealed that the club could not complete the transfer. “We had to pull out for financial reasons,” Howe admitted. “I don’t want to go into details, but it was finance related.”