Kalvin Philips is a regular Leeds and England national team midfielder who had been rumoured to join Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal but he ended up signing for Manchester City. He now says that the motivation was not the money but the loyalty to his former club, Leeds United. Loyalty is the only advantage that City had over their rivals here in signing the much-hyped midfielder. Philips has been at Leeds ever since he was 14 years of age and he is a boyhood Leeds fan and so is his entire family as well. He left the club having made 235 appearances for them. He was also part of Gareth Southgate's English squad that reached the UEFA Euro 2020 finals where they lost to Italy in a dramatic penalty shootout. Chelsea and Arsenal were unable to reach the asking price that Leeds were demanding for their star player but even though United were equal to the task, they had other issues. 

Philips had to say this after signing for Manchester City; “Going to United? No, there was never any chance of me going there. You know my loyalty to Leeds, my family as well, they’re all Leeds fans. I was honored by United wanting me, such a big team – one of the biggest teams in the world. But no, I had to stay loyal to Leeds and choose to go to the other side of Manchester. I don’t know, it’s just the way I am, the way I think, and the way I’ll always be. I want to be loyal to the people who’ve given me the biggest opportunity in the world. Leeds were the first team to sign me, I made sure that was one of the main things I’d do.” 

Even though City paid high transfer fees for him, the England international knows that he is not guaranteed a starting 11 position at the club. Unlike his former club where he was the main man, he will now have to compete for playing time with other world-class players at Manchester City. The best example is his new teammate Jack Grealish who is the most expensive English player yet he is facing competition every day which is the harsh reality of being at a big club. Philips said this concerning his expectations of playing time at the English Premier League champions;  “It’s a risk and reward thing. I want to come here and prove myself against the best players in the world. I know there will be times I’m pulling my hair out because it is so difficult but that is what I wanted. At Leeds, I was the guy who needed to play every game, at City that isn’t the case. I need to get my head around that. At the Euros, it was new to me but I did reasonably well. Everything Marcelo taught me was a lot of movement without the ball, creating space for yourself to get on the ball. With City, it is moving into spaces to help teammates get on the ball or getting in position to turn on the ball and play forward all the time. It was the opportunity to be coached by Pep. I couldn’t turn it down. Even if Pep’s only here for one more year it will hopefully be a good year.”