Kalvin Phillips will return to West Ham for the first time since his disastrous loan spell when Ipswich Town visit the London Stadium this weekend.
West Ham could have been be forgiven for thinking they’d been the victims of a prank so bad was Kalvin Phillips’ loan move last season.
In January the Hammers brought Phillips to the London Stadium on loan from Man City for the rest of the season.
It had actually been a move a long time in the making. Departing Hammers boss David Moyes had chased Phillips for two years, dating back to his time at Leeds.
In the end Moyes’ insistence on what was an unmitigated disaster of a signing was one of two big reasons David Sullivan decided to let the Scot go.
West Ham were just thankful they had only agreed to a straight loan deal with no obligation to buy.
Phillips has gone down as one of West Ham’s worst signing since Roberto.
Fans of his former club even jumped on the bandwagon, as Leeds trolled West Ham by hijacking the club’s player of the year vote.
A timeline of Phillips’ West Ham move is so bad you almost couldn’t make it up.
Phillips slams West Ham fans over treatment ahead of return
A host of awful early performances from the former England midfielder saw saw him give the ball away leading to goals before he was then sent off in defeat at Forest.
After serving his suspension, Phillips was then stuck on West Ham’s bench until a chance at redemption arose against then Premier League whipping boys Burnley at home.
Phillips turned in another woeful display and was dragged off at half-time with West Ham 2-0 down.
Edson Alvarez’s suspension for three games in the league and Europe should have given Phillips a golden chance at a run of games to try and redeem himself.
But on 69 minutes of the first game of Alvarez’s suspension at Newcastle, Phillips came on for Michail Antonio with West Ham 3-1 up.
What happened next is now seen as the moment West Ham’s season – and hopes of Europe – capitulated.
Against a makeshift Newcastle side, who lost several more players mid-game due to injury, Phillips infuriated supporters by walking around the pitch as West Ham surrendered the lead to inexplicably lose 4-3.
To rub salt in the wound Phillips was caught on camera after the game swearing at a Hammers supporter who had called him ‘useless’.
Now Phillips has slammed West Ham fans over their treatment of him ahead of his return with Ipswich.
Phillips found West Ham move ‘stressful’
Phillips says he found his time with the Hammers stressful.
And he says the West Ham fans gave him ‘quite a bit of stick’.
“I made a decision (to sign for Ipswich because) I wanted to play my football, not stress free, but with less stress and less eyes on me maybe,” Phillips told The East Anglian Daily Times.
“When I went to West Ham I felt like there were quite a lot of eyes on me because it was my first loan move since going to City.
“Obviously it didn’t work out well and I got quite a bit of stick.
“Sometimes you can handle that well, sometimes you can go the other way and handle it not so well…
“Obviously City was City, and I’m always going to make that decision to go there. Then I went to West Ham.
“David Moyes was a lovely guy, and we spoke a lot, but it was more towards the end of the season. I wish I’d spoken to him a lot more at the start and told him how I felt.”
Phillips will likely get a frosty reception when he returns with the Tractor Boys.
And he will no doubt be fired up to prove a point having made it clear he feels he was badly treated.
West Ham will just be hoping he performs like he did for them as Julen Lopetegui searches for a first home league win of the season.
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