just wanted to get that feeling back. I felt like I lost some fire in my belly to compete sometimes, but ever since I’ve been here, and even in pre-season when I played a lot of minutes I got that fire back, and made the decision to come here to play football and get back doing enjoying what I do.
“It has a similar feeling here to the season at Leeds when we got promoted. We’re different in what we do, we’re very intense and for me it’s about enjoying the season and for the lads too.”
Phillips’ fall from grace could not have been more public given his relative exile during City’s relentless winning streak, where he mSpeaking to Sky Sports wearing the colours of Ipswich, where he moved on loan in August, Phillips revealed how much the limelight and notoriety surrounding his career at the Etihad has affected him – and why the search for a quieter life played a part in joining the Tractor Boys this summer.
“I knew a lot about the club, and it was a decision I wanted to make to get out of the eye line of the media so much and focus on playing footbajust wanted to get that feeling back. I felt like I lost some fire in my belly to compete sometimes, but ever since I’ve been here, and even in pre-season when I played a lot of minutes I got that fire back, and made the decision to come here to play football and get back doing enjoying what I do.
“It has a similar feeling here to the season at Leeds when we got promoted. We’re different in what we do, we’re very intense and for me it’s about enjoying the season and for the lads too.”
Phillips’ fall from grace could not have been more public given his relative exile during City’s relentless winning streak, where he mPhillips was tipped for big things after being moulded into an all-round defensive lynchpin by Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds and helping his boyhood club to promotion in 2020, before he was named England’s player of the year 12 months later.
His form for club and country brought Manchester City calling in the summer of 2022, but from there his upward curve quickly changed direction.
Phillips played just 290 minutes in his first season at the Etihad, and was labelled overweight by Pep Guardiola on his return from the Qatar World
