Leeds United academy product Kalvin Phillips has reportedly been attracting the interest of Aston Villa following their promotion to the Premier League.
Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips will be vying to play in the Premier League with his boyhood club, but Aston Villa could potentially get him to England’s top-flight a lot quicker.
The Sun have reported that amid Villa’s interest in the Leeds academy product, the Yorkshire outfit are demanding £30 million for his services, and the Midlands outfit would be daft to go along with those demands.
There’s no doubt that Phillips is a quality player. He is arguably the best defensive-minded midfielder in the second tier of English football, but he’s not worth the price Leeds want for him.
The transfer market is crowded and it is inflated. But given the fact that Phillips has never played in the Premier League before, paying such a high price for a player like that would be a huge risk.
Dean Smith is better off paying that sort of price for a more experienced player or someone who has competed and proved their worth in a top-flight of a well-known European league before.
Given Phillips’ talent, he will be playing Premier League football sooner rather than later, but the 23-year-old will be hoping that it’s with his current club.
If Phillips stays at Elland Road this summer, and Leeds fail to earn promotion then it will be very interesting to see what happens with him in regards to his future.
As things stand, Villa don’t have a specialist player that can produce the goods in front of the defence because they opted against extending the contracts of Glenn Whelan and Mile Jedinak.
As a result, Villa need a player to deploy that position ahead of their Premier League return, and given the fact that it is such a unique and difficult role, they may need to sign more than one player.
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