West Ham Online

West Ham United is delighted to confirm the signing of England midfielder Kalvin Phillips on loan until the end of the 2023/24 season. The 28-year-old joins the Hammers from Manchester City and could make his debut in Thursday’s Premier League fixture with AFC Bournemouth at London Stadium.

It was after the world cup. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12773679/man-city-boss-pep-guardiola-on-kalvin-phillips-fitness-hes-not-injured-he-arrived-overweight

"IIRC he did at one point say Phillips needed to lose weight or improve his fitness (start of 2023 season I think?) Ultimately it probably just comes down to he isn't quite a good enough footballer technically to do what's required of him in that system. Which is no knock on him as they have some special players in midfield. Rodri is a fabulous, fabulous player. And Phillips is plenty good enough for us, and will bring another dimension if he's got a bit of licence to get ahead of Alvarez if they play together or be that player in Alvarez' absence. I can see us in a position where he can rotate and use any three of the four we have to keep people fresh and combat the Thu-Sun we have coming up. So I hope he doesn't just get fixated on one combo and freeze one player out while the others are flogged to death. I can see Alvarez being the odd man out if Moyes isn't smart enough to retate properly."

"Ahh, but Peps standards on fitness are probably lower than Moyes's standards on fitness as he likes to have them chasing after the ball for 90+ minutes......."

"I don't understand all these concerns about fitness. He has been on the bench for virtually every Man City game. Do people really think Pep would have a sub who was not fit enough to play if, say, Rodri was injured after 5 minutes?"

"The flight back is part of his medical - it's to make sure that he can stand up to, and endure, our future European onslaughts..."

"The flight back is part of his medical - it's to make sure that he can stand up to, and endure, our future European onslaughts..."

So Paqueta to City with Phillips plus 40m coming the other way then.

"At face value this is an excellent signing. England international. Arguably England's best DM after Rice. You need to forget his time at Man City as it's been a farce. Think of him when he was at Leeds. My only minor concern is how fit he actually is. Playing football at any level is physically tough and you can be as fit as a fiddle but there is no fitness like match fitness. He's played six games for Man City. So he may take five or six games to really get his match fitness up to speed so by then your looking end of Feb. But, as i said, its only a minor concern just about what we will get from him in way of what we are paying for him. But overall, this is a no brainer for me and a smashing signing."

Not excited about this at all cos he's.blatantly going to be starting instead of Alvarez whether it be due to the Mexican being injured or Moyes doesn't fancy him..either way is not good. There is no way Moyes drops Jwp or soucek. Hate the cսnt. Wonder why the media never take the view that it must be so bad if a trophy winning manager is loathed by this many fans rather than trying to lay blame.at.our door.

Sky reckon medical tomorrow and it’s £40 million That’s not a bad valuation tbf

"Man City have been in Abu Dhabi for the last 7 days. It's not like it takes more than a few hours to return by plane anyway, so what would be the point of not letting him train until the deal is complete?"

"He has gone training with his club whilst we negotiate a deal. We have shown an interest in him since he was at Leeds and tried to sign him then. He has come back because it looks like we have finally agreed a deal. If you believe the wide reports the actual medical hasn’t even been confirmed yet (today, tomorrow and the next few days have been mentioned). Do you honestly think we have only asked about him in the last day or two and he suddenly rushes and jumps on a plane?"

"LJC So why is Philips suddenly getting on a jet to fly back to the UK whilst the rest of the Man City squad enjoy some warm weather training. you would think he wouldn't have gone in the first place if he was about to undergo medicals etc to join West Ham, only really the last couple of days things have happened, seems pretty quick to me."

The only place I’ve seen it is someone on here had said they had heard a rumour and I would hardly say the Philips transfer is happening quickly…

"""I said on the transfer thread"" That should be *Alverez thread.........."

"Lee Trundle 11:44 Wed Jan 24 I said on the transfer thread, can't remember where i read/saw it as at the time didn't take it too seriously. Only my speculation NOW that he may be out for a while, its just with the Philips stuff happening and quickly and in reality, if Alverez was fit we would need to drop a first team player (Alverez or Soucek) as im sure if Philips does come, he would want some guarantees of playing time. You would also think we have higher priority's than a DM, unless there is a reason? So in essence it could be BS and Alverez is going to be fine. BUT maybe not."

He’ll be starting with Soucek against Bournemouth. Hope Steidten is here for the long haul because this doesn’t look good.

"I saw you've snared the idiot H&P on the other thread, but where are you getting Alverez is out for a while, Sydney?"

"Until its on the OS im not getting optimistic or excited!. Pretty sure (famous last words, LOL) if he is coming its because Alverez is going to be out for a while NOT because big Tomas is getting relegated to the bench............."

"He’ll be super fit by the Moyes decides he can start a match, probably March."

"Yeah I know fraser. Some people seem to think that not playing for a while because you're not picked creates the same lack of fitness as being out injured for months and not training. Maybe they're thinking about match sharpness or whatever you want to call it, but that doesn't take long to get up to speed, and it's probably more of an issue with forwards anyway."

"He's not unfit anyway, he's been available all season I think. He's played and has been training."

"LOL, yeah. True enough."

"nagel, we had one of the best players in the league at doing that. he moved him to the wing. we're not coached by a logical thinking manager, he's a cսnt"

"Stop worrying about his fitness. When Lingard joined us he'd played just one game in 4 months, and had barely even sat on the bench for Man Utd, let alone play. He then went on to play 90 mins within a few days of joining and carried on that way the rest of the season. Kalvin hasn't played that much - 10 games in total - but he's been available on the bench for every single PL game. Given City's squad he simply wouldn't be there if he wasn't fit to play. I don't think some people understand the potential here. This godawful low block shit that we play means that to effectively counter attack you need players who can either carry the ball out of our own half or quickly pass it forward to the attackers while under pressure. None of our current midfield 3 can do that effectively. Phillips can. Even though he's a defensive player, his presence could and should provide us with more attacking opportunities."