Aston Villa central midfielder Conor Hourihane has been linked with Leeds United.
It has been reported that Villa – who will play in the Premier League next season after clinching promotion from the Championship via the playoffs – are ready to make a final offer to sign Phillips.
The report has claimed that Villa manager Dean Smith is ready to include the 28-year-old central midfielder in a deal to bring 23-year-old central midfielder Phillips to Villa Park.
Hourihane, though, has only just signed a new contract, and it will be interesting to see if the Republic of Ireland international – who joined Villa from Barnsley in January 2017 for a transfer fee reported by The Irish Examiner to be worth £3 million – is willing to switch to Elland Road in the summer transfer window.
Leeds legend and former Republic of Ireland international midfielder Johnny Giles was critical of the 28-year-old in May 2019, suggesting that he needs to add more creativity to his game – comments which the Elland Road faithful will find quite interesting.
Giles told Off the Ball about Hourihane, as transcribed by The Birmingham Mail in May 2019: “He’s neat and tidy. I would expect more of him on the ball as a midfield player. He gets it from A to B, but there’s nothing really creative about him.
“He’s useful in that sense, he’s got a shot on him he will get you a goal. But he won’t take control of the game, he’s just a bit conservative in his play and his passing.
“He is only relatively new to it, he might improve on that but I think he should look a little bit more.
“He has got a good left foot he can deliver it well I would like to see him looking for a bit more from his passing.”
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