Sky Sports pundit shares conversation with Leeds United players about Kalvin Phillips transfer situation
Jermaine Beckford has told a couple of unnamed Leeds United players to do what they can to stop Kalvin Phillips from leaving Elland Road this summer.
Phillips, 26, has been strongly linked with a move away from Leeds with 90min reporting on 3 June that Manchester City are readying a bid to sign the England international.
Sky Sports pundit and ex-Leeds striker Beckford is desperate for Phillips to stay in West Yorkshire and has joked that his teammates should handcuff him to stop him going.
“I don’t want him to leave because he’s a phenomenal footballer. He’s doing the club proud and if I was there now, I’d be persuading him to stay on a daily basis,” said Beckford at an event to support Yorkshire Cancer Research, as quoted by the Sunday Express in their print edition on 5 June (page six of pull-out).
“As it stands, I’ve spoken to one or two other lads and told them not to let Kalvin go… and to handcuff to the crossbar if they have to!”
Going nowhere
If Leeds were relegated from the Premier League in the 2021/22 season then we would hold our hands up and admit that it’s time for Phillips to move on and we would not have blamed him if he did.
However, Leeds are still a Premier League club and despite their brush with relegation this year, they’re in England’s top-flight for a third consecutive season.
If he’s going to leave Leeds then he’ll surely only join a club where he’ll play every week.
Phillips doesn’t seem like he’s the kind of player who’ll be happy to go somewhere to be a bench-warmer and while he’s a brilliant player, we don’t see him starting at Man City.
Pep Guardiola has Rodri, who was pivotal in City’s title-winning season and he’s bound to be the first-choice holding midfielder at the Etihad whether Phillips is there or not.
If Phillips joined Man City, he’d play every now and then and would get some game-time in the Champions League.
He’d win silverware and solidify his spot in the England squad.
But he’s a Leeds lad through and through and he knows that if he stays at Elland Road, he’ll become a club legend here.
Phillips will have a lot to lose if he joins Man City.
At Leeds, he can’t do anything wrong, really – other than leaving to join the other club in Manchester.
In other Leeds United news, a £54,000-a-week contract has been agreed for the Whites to seal a £20million-plus signing.