West Ham shouldn’t entertain the idea of signing Kalvin Phillps on a permanent basis this summer, according to former Hammers striker Frank McAvennie.
Phillips completed a loan move to the London Stadium during the January transfer window, having fallen completely out of favour at Manchester City.
While it felt like an exciting piece of business by West Ham at the time, the 28-year-old has made a worryingly underwhelming start to life at the club, making errors for goals and generally not having a positive influence.
Speaking to Football Insider, McAvennie said that the Hammers should choose not to make Phillips’ temporary switch a permanent one at the end of the season:
“I’d send Phillips back – he’s done nothing. He hasn’t done anything good at all and he’s been terrible. I know in his first game [against Bournemouth] Kurt Zouma gave him a terrible pass that led to their goal, but he’s had an absolute shocker since then.
“To be fair to him, he’d not played [while at City] – but he’s making excuses. “I don’t know if he’s as good as people are making him out to be. “He was great when he was playing for Leeds. “But when he’d played for England, he’s played against rubbish teams. “Is he good enough to play in the Premier League?
“He hasn’t proven anything to me even though I thought he was the kind of player that West Ham needed. The harder he tries, the worse it’s getting for him.”
Phillips has been a big disappointment for West Ham so far, but in fairness to him, he could be a player low on confidence and he still has three months to prove his worth.
It is better to judge the impact the England international has made once the campaign comes to an end – he will be desperate to shine ahead of Euro 2024 – and writing him off this soon feels harsh.
Granted, much more is needed from Phillips, and on current evidence he doesn’t merit a permanent move, but he could find his feet as the weeks pass.
