West Ham United signed Kalvin Phillips on loan from Manchester City until the end of the season in the January transfer window.
Kalvin Phillips has really struggled to establish himself at West Ham though unfortunately, and David Moyes is somewhat surprisingly not expected to make the 28-year-old’s loan move a permanent one in the summer.
The former Leeds midfielder had a tough start to life at the London Stadium when he was thrown in from the start against Bournemouth back in February, despite having not started a Premier League game since May before then.
Phillips has received criticism from the likes of Stan Collymore for joining Man City in the first place just under two years ago.
He has barely played any football over the past 22 months, and subsequently lost his place in Gareth Southgate’s most recent England squad as a result.
If we’re being brutally honest, signing Phillips on loan was a major mistake from West Ham. We paid Man City a £7 million loan fee (The Times) and are covering the midfielder’s £150k-a-week wages (Spotrac).
However, there’s something else that makes the signing of Phillips look even worse, and nobody is really talking about it…
The specific Kalvin Phillips mistake West Ham made
Moyes not only made a big mistake by bringing the Manchester City midfielder to the London Stadium, but he made a huge error in letting one of our players leave.
The 28-year-old Englishman has looked painfully off the pace during his first two months at the club, and Moyes has admitted that he still needs time to get up to speed.
Don’t get me wrong, the Hammers boss needed to provide some adequate cover for Edson Alvarez, but the Scot had a ready made squad player to provide cover for the Mexican at the club already, before he let him go in the summer of 2023.
Flynn Downes left the London Stadium to join Southampton on loan seven months ago, and I guarantee you that Moyes wishes he would have kept him around now.
The 25-year-old has been incredibly solid for the Saints, and has earned rave reviews for his performances for the south coast club.
Russell Martin has labelled the Hammers loanee as ‘outstanding’ and he’s not wrong. Downes has played a crucial role in the Saints’ push for promotion back to the Premier League.
In 25 Championship outings for Southampton this season, he has averaged 1.9 tackles and 1.4 interceptions per match. He has made 68.2 passes per match on average during those appearances and has recorded a completion rate of 94.1% (Who Scored).
Those numbers are significantly better than the stats that Phillips has produced in every single category for both the Hammers and Manchester City over the past two seasons.
I’m sorry, but I just don’t see what Kalvin Phillips has brought to West Ham that Downes wouldn’t have been able to bring.
Shipping out the former Swansea City man and bringing Phillips into the club now looks like a monumental error from Moyes and his transfer team.
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