Kalvin Phillips causes outrage after sticking his middle finger up to West Ham fans.

Since leaving Leeds, Kalvin Phillips’ career has taken a nosedive. His limited play time at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola calling him fat and becoming a shadow of his former self led to him leaving the treble winners on loan in January. West Ham fans as well as the midfielder saw it as a chance to get his career back on track, but things have only gotten worse since the move.

Unfortunately, he has been woeful since joining the Hammers. Almost every time he has stepped on the pitch he has been involved in the opposition scoring a goal and, even though he didn’t know anything about the penalty against Newcastle, it is no coincidence that his side’s collapse coincided with him coming on. While a lot of that is down to the shift in tactics, he simply was not good enough during his 30 minute cameo.

However, it is not his performance that has caused the most controversy amongst fans, rather a video of the loanee that surfaced after the game. In the video, an individual off camera (who you would assume is a West Ham supporter) can be heard calling Phillips “useless” and telling him to “get out” of the club as the player is boarding the team bus. Shockingly, he responded by sticking up his middle finger to the fan – in other words telling him to f*** off. 

Unsurprisingly, the large majority of the East London faithful have responded with anger, but there are some who believe Phillips had every right to do so. Neither side of the argument is necessarily wrong as it must be awful hearing someone who has waited outside to specifically ridicule you. At the same time, as a professional footballer you simply can not respond in that manner, especially when West Ham are the club who are paying your ridiculously high wages and giving you the opportunity to reignite your career.

Either way, it is a clear indication of the headspace that the No.11 is in at the moment. You can only imagine how tough things are for him mentally right now. If he has the right to what he did is completely subjective, but it isn’t a good look for him at all.