Kalvin Phillips has revealed criticism from the Manchester City manager is still having an impact today.

Kalvin Phillips has revealed how Pep Guardiola’s ‘overweight’ comments in 2022 ‘peed’ him off and created an unfair perception of the midfielder.

The Manchester City boss claimed Phillips was not in ‘condition to do training sessions and to play’ when he returned from the 2022 World Cup, although he later apologised for those remarks.

The 28-year-old, who is on loan at Ipswich Town, said in an interview earlier this year that Guardiola’s criticism had a ‘big knock on my confidence’ and revealed the pair never discussed the issue.

But the impacts of Guardiola’s comments had a long-lasting effect Phillips claims with clubs keen to enquire about his weight when discussing a possible transfer last summer.

“I think that narrative on social media just kind of grew and grew,” the Yorkshireman said on the My Mate’s a Footballer podcast.

“Every club that I'd go to, I spoke to, like the manager and the nutritionist and stuff like that, they'd always speak about weight before they'd say anything else.

“And it got to the point where it peed me off a little bit. I was getting quite frustrated with it, but then now I've come to Ipswich like the manager's an unbelievable person as well as a manager.

“He [Kieran McKenna] said ‘I'm big on body composition and I just want you to get to where you was when you left Leeds or when you was at Leeds’. I think that'll give us a good starting point for you to push on and hopefully get to back, back to where you was.”

Phillips’ £42m move from Leeds United in 2022 failed to live up to the hype, resulting in a rare transfer loss for City. He made just 31 appearances for the club, with only six coming as starts.

The former Leeds United star has enjoyed an impressive start to his loan at Portman Road, however, and has already made four starts for the Tractor Boys.