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Sheffield United's Kalvin Phillips: 'I've had a tough couple of years, but it's nothing that I can't shake off' Kalvin Phillips is determined to repay Sheffield United’s faith after last season’s loan did not go to plan. The former Leeds United midfielder, England's player of the year for 2020-21, joined in January to get his career back on track. Brilliant from the bench against Middlesbrough on his debut, he was sent off in only his second start, against Sheffield Wednesday, and after picking up an injury whilst suspended, never played for the Blades again. And yet, in a summer where manager Chris Wilder has put such a high premium on robustness and availability, a midfielder who has started 27 club games since he left Elland Road four years ago was right at the top of his shopping list. Phillips will not play in Saturday's evening's Championship opener at home to Birmingham City, and is looking at mid-September before his season starts, but Wilder still feels he is worth the wait. By the same token, such a bad on-field experience has not put 30-year-old Phillips off the Blades, or a manager whose honesty he thinks can do him a lot of good. “I think where my last three years have gone has been quite negative, in a way," he admits. “I've had a tough couple of years, but it's nothing that I can't shake off. “I know the last three years have been difficult for me, and being at City, it's not frustrating for me at City. They're really good with me, they treated me really well. “Hopefully this season, this is the season. “Every player that is on a football team wants to play as much as possible, and when you don't get that chance at the end of the week, you can get frustrated, but I kind of understood certain aspects of why I wasn't playing, and things that I needed to do better. “Injuries didn't help me either. I was always at the stage of being really fit, but then when a certain game came where I could be involved, I'd pick up a little niggle a week before or something like that.” The question will be on whether Phillips can get back to being the player he was. “I don't feel like I have to prove,” he insists. “I feel like I've been – still am – a very good player. “I know that when I'm in the best shape possible, I can be a really good player.” And he hopes he can be a more mature leader, guiding the likes of Sydie Peck and Oliver Arblaster. “I don't really like coming off the bench,” he says of his Blades debut. “I'm always a little bit more nervous than starting. “I just had nothing to lose, to be honest, when I came on against Middlesbrough. “We were playing a very good team and we were losing, but I just wanted to go out there and just play my game. “Hopefully many times this year if I'm not starting, I can come off the bench and have that same impact. “I feel like when I was younger, if I got injured, it would kind of be the end of the world. “Now I take care of my body a lot more and when I get injured I know that it's not the end of the world, “It's a different role for me, I've never been that kind of player that's needed to share my experiences or show my leadership, really, because we've always had a lot of different captains in the teams that I've been at. “Oli and Sydie are really good players. They've played at this level for quite a few years now and they're still only young. I feel like the sky's the limit for them too.” And in Wilder and at Bramall Lane, he feels like he has a manager and an environment to get the best out of him. “It's a very good fanbase,” says a player who has also had loans at West Ham United and Ipswich Town. “As long as the performances are good, then I'm pretty sure that Bramall Lane will be rocking. “Working with this manager is really good. “He's very honest, which I feel a player like me benefits from. “The conversation we had after my injury last season was that he did want me to come back next year, regardless of how the season went. “I feel like it benefits me if I have a manager who's honest with me and speaks to me and tells me exactly what I need to play or to become a better player or anything like that. I'd much rather know certain things that I need to do better rather than nobody saying anything or maybe making a mistake here and there. “I feel like I owed it to the players as much as anyone (to come back). The manager as well.” For Wilder, the benefits of re-signing Phillips outweigh the risks. “Because we've got the (other) four midfield players fit and healthy, there's not so much of a risk-taking approach to getting him back,” he argues. “Will he be available for Saturday? No. Potentially not the week after, but I think going into the back end before the international break, I think he'll be pushing to be available. “He's not played any minutes at all in pre-season. We have to put that into him in a different way. “But it's a long season and he's going to be here for the season. “When we're all comfortable and happy and most importantly the player's happy, he will go back in. “I'm comfortable with that and I'm sure Kalvin is.”