The 28-year-old says his switch to life under manager Kieran McKenna is one of the best of his career as he gets to play every week under a manager that trusts him.
“I'd never expect myself to be down here,” he said, he knew “straight away” that McKenna would “put trust in me and make sure that everything that he did was for my benefit”.
“The main reason I came to Ipswich was just to get back playing football week in week out, and make sure that I'm fit again, and I'm not getting many injuries,” he said.
“Just back to enjoying my football because obviously I loved it at City, they’re the best team in the world, they’ve got amazing players and amazing people there (but) it’s kind of draining when you know you’re not going to play on the weekend and you’ve still got to go in and train as well as you can and hopefully make yourself better and better every day. With nothing to look forward to on the weekend it’s hard.
“It just got to a point where I knew that I probably weren't going to play much because of the players that play in front of me, which you know, I can't really argue about that.”
Pep Guardiola made a comment about the midfielder's weight after he returned from the Qatar World Cup which he says created a narrative that he hated.
“I think that narrative on social media just kind of grew and grew,” he tell BBC Sport honestly. “Every club that I’d go to, I spoke to, like the manager and the nutritionist and stuff like that, they’d always speak about weight before they’d say anything else. And it got to the point where it peed me off a little bit. I was getting quite frustrated with it.”
Phillips has made three Premier League appearances for the Blues since making his loan move from Manchester City and is unbeaten so far at the club. After years of poor form and a lack of confidence Philips looks to be enjoying football once again at Ipswich who look to avoid relegation this season.