Bernardo Silva can show Kalvin Phillips how to succeed at Man City

It emerged last night that Manchester City have tried and succeeded in their attempts to crown Kalvin Phillip as Fernandinho's successor for next season.

The £42million (plus £3million in add-ons) deal makes sense for a lot of reasons, with Phillips having shown his Premier League pedigree for two years with Leeds, despite some injury problems, while also establishing himself as an England regular. Pep Guardiola likes to work with English players, as well as those that have already impressed him in the top flight, and City have the money to invest given the bargain fee they scooped up Erling Haaland for.

Why Phillips has chosen to move to City may be slightly less obvious, particularly to those of a Leeds persuasion. The move to a bigger club, the Premier League champions no less, obviously carries huge appeal; Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez and others have all made similar journeys and now have winners' medals to back up their decision.

Also read: Man City agree fee for Kalvin Phillips transfer from Leeds

However, it is a fair point to question how much game time Phillips will actually get, given Rodri has been supreme this season and barely been injured. The Leeds midfielder would almost certainly improve City if he moved, but there have been doubts raised by those commenting on a prospective transfer over whether it would be the best thing for the player.

The answer for Phillips is staring him in the faces of the City squad, especially in the shape of Bernardo Silva. For the second season in his City career (2018/19 being the first occasion), Bernardo effectively worked himself into the scenario whereby Guardiola had to pick him in the team. Regardless of the position -—the No.8 role, No.6, as a wide