Jesse Marsch claims Kalvin Phillips dearly misses his Leeds home.
Phillips made the agonising decision for him and his family to quit his beloved Leeds in the summer to join Manchester City in a £45million switch. The England midfielder returned to Elland Road for the Whites' defeat by Fulham in October and he is still idolised by Leeds fans.
He has struggled at City, making just four appearances, mainly because of injury, and Pep Guardiola called him out, claiming he returned from the World Cup overweight. Phillips, 27, hopes to return with City on Wednesday night and Marsch says he left a huge hole at Leeds because he was the heart of the team.
“We still miss Kalvin,” said the Leeds boss. “He came for one of our matches, Fulham, and you could see he felt the pain of losing that match with us after the match.
“He missed being here. Of course, he misses being here, he misses the guys, he’s got a lot of great friends here, this club is in his heart. Kalvin was such a good player, but for me he was a really likeable, heart-warming person to have around the team.
“He got along with everybody here, with the older players, as well was the younger players, with me as well as the academy coaches.
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“If you were to ask me what was the hardest part of replacing Kalvin, it was a little bit of that - making sure that we still had the feeling of what Leeds United is, what it means to be from Leeds, what the history of the club means.”
Marsch backed Phillips to handle the huge emotion of facing his boyhood club if he plays on Wednesday. “It felt like he belonged here, that this was his home,” he added on the midfielder.
“I’m sure that even when he made the decision to leave that was a big part of the difficulty. Coming back, I think he will revisit those emotions and I think it will bring the best out of him. That’s the kind of person he is.”
