Confidence may be the most important thing in all of football.
Just look at the way Aston Villa transformed themselves from relegation candidates to European challengers almost immediately following the sacking of Steven Gerrard and the appointment of Unai Emery.
A team who appeared to be sinking into the quicksand securing Champions League qualification just 18 months or so later.
Leon Bailey, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne were among those who’s reputations were not only salvaged but enhanced under Emery.
But even the former Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal boss may be biting off more than he can chew with Kalvin Phillips, should Manchester City’s £42 million misfit end up at Villa Park during the final month of the transfer window.
Aston Villa linked with Man City misfit Kalvin Phillips
If Phillips has disappointed in the sky blue of City, then that was nothing compared to the unmitigated disaster that was his loan spell at West Ham United in the second half of last season.
Gifting Bournemouth a goal just two minutes into his Hammers debut, that was a sign of things to come. England’s 2022 Player of the Year would then pick up a red card against Nottingham Forest, would give away a penalty in a collapse away to Newcastle, and ended the campaign out of David Moyes’ squad.
A couple of dreadful displays in pre-season defeats to Celtic and AC Milan have done little to quell the notion that he is a busted flush at Man City either, with former Villa forward Dean Saunders wondering if Emery would be fighting a losing battle attempting to return Phillips to his Elland Road peak.
“Kalvin Phillips made his name under Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds. A defensive midfield player filling in while everybody else was going forward, seeing things, doing a job intercepting counter attacks,” Saunders tells talkSPORT.
“(He was) brilliant at it. Quick over the ground, getting in snuffing out before they happen. He gets transferred to man city for big money, couldn’t get a look in, (and) it looks to me as if he’s just like lost heart, lost confidence.
“He’s lost all his belief and confidence. And when you confidence goes… I mean, if I went eight games without scoring I couldn’t even control the ball! Like, everything’s like an effort you know and your belief goes. You start thinking you’re a bad player.”
When pressed further on whether Aston Villa should consider making a move, Saunders was emphatic.
“No. No,” said the man who won the League Cup with Villa in 1994. “I mean, he’s gone to West Ham and that never happened. I’d start thinking something’s wrong.
“Arthur Cox, my old manager at Derby County, said to me when I became a manager; ‘Sign players who’ve done well for someone else and they’ll do well for you’,” Saunders adds.
“But if you start signing players who have not done very well for someone else and you think you can change them, you can’t.”
England midfielder also on Everton’s radar
Everton have also been linked.
Former England midfielder Danny Murphy is far more confident than Saunders is, meanwhile, about a deal that would see Phillips bring a permanent end to his ill-fated Man City career.
Murphy feels that Everton boss Sean Dyche is the right man to get Phillips’ moving in the right direction again.
Gabriel Agbonlahor, meanwhile, falls more on Saunders’ side of the argument. He cannot see a starting place for Phillips in a Villa side who already have Boubacar Kamara and John McGinn at their disposal, with the ‘beautiful to watch’ Enzo Barrenechea also joining from Juventus.
“There’s no way he’s going to go to a team that finished fourth last season, has Champions League, and is going to start,” Agbonlahor tells talkSPORT.
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