Graeme Souness has placed doubts over whether Kalvin Phillips is even a Premier League player.

It's safe to say that Phillips could not have got to a worse start to life at West Ham United.

In the Hammers' latest 2-0 defeat against Nottingham Forest, the Manchester City loanee got sent off after picking a second booking for his rash tackle on Morgan Gibbs-White.

Graeme Souness doubts whether Kalvin Phillips is even a Premier League player In the Irons' 3-0 loss to Manchester United as well, the PS42 million (The Athletic) man lost the ball to Scott McTominay in the middle of the park, who set up Alejandro Garnacho's late strike.

While on his first start for David Moyes' side in a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth, the 28-year-old was unaware of Alex Scott's presence behind him, who nicked the ball off him to assist Dominic Solanke's goal.

As things go from bad to worse for Kalvin Phillips in a West Ham strip, Graeme Souness has questioned whether he is a Premier League-quality player.

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"You know how many games he starts for England? England play Micky Mouse games most of the time. Not to discredit England, Scotland do as well. But the teams that play today are, you know, the likes of Yugoslavia was dissolved and you're playing about eight nations from that area now. They're joke games!"

"Al [Alan], you can't say he's a very good player but it's the wrong move for West Ham. I think he's played, I'm just getting a check, 65 games in the Premier League."

"I think it's circa 65."

Graeme Souness continued to argue why Kalvin Phillips may not be at the level to play in the English top-flight.

"He was at Leeds, comes up, one season in the Premier League. 69 [Premier League games] now. Gets a big move to Man City, that's on someone's opinion, they quickly realise, he's not what we thought we were getting and they've moved him on."

"For me, he's still to prove that he's a top player in the Premier League."

Recently, Roy Keane also claimed that the treble-winner "slows down the game too much" while asking the player himself to question himself about why he is having such a difficult time settling in at the London Stadium.

That is a stretch While there is no denying that Kalvin Phillips has been poor for West Ham so far, in our view, Graeme Souness is being harsh by questioning his status as a Premier League player.

During his two seasons at Leeds United in the English top-flight, Phillips was excellent and the same can be said about his displays in an England shirt but it is worth saying that it is high time that he steps up his game for West Ham.

The more mistakes the Premier League winner makes, the more questions about his calibre will naturally start to emerge.