Manchester United’s Mike Phelan has been keen for the club to sign Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips for nearly three years now.
That’s according to The Athletic, who claim that Phelan’s admiration for Phillips goes back to 2019.
United coach Phelan attended Leeds’ 3-0 win over Salford City in the EFL Cup back in August 2019.
Phelan, sitting with Nicky Butt, Gary Neville and Phil Neville, was left in awe of how Phillips controlled the game.
That was against fourth-tier opposition but Phelan went back and told United to get scouting the Leeds star.
Fast forward to the present day and it’s claimed that United have explored a potential deal worth £50million for Phillips.
This follows reports from earlier this month that United have been chasing a deal for Phillips.
There are a couple of big hurdles here.
Firstly, United’s interest in a deal has only been through intermediaries so far and not between the two clubs or even through Phillips and his agency.
That means United are realistically miles away from bringing Phillips to Old Trafford.
Then you have the hurdle of Leeds themselves.
Leeds don’t want to lose their midfield maestro any time soon. His absence for a large chunk of this season was massively felt, and Leeds want to build around Phillips – not sell him.
You have to add in how Phillips feels too. Phillips was a boyhood Leeds fan and, according to Patrick Bamford, all of his family ‘hate’ United.
The report notes that Phillips wants to make sure that he can come back to Leeds one day, preferably still liked by Whites fans.
Going to United would put him alongside Alan Smith in the bad books; you can make an argument that this one may actually be worse.
Look, it’s no surprise that United like Phillips – why wouldn’t they?
United need a holding midfield player and the way Phillips can both break up and dictate play has to be appealing.
Yet given the rivalry between the two clubs and how Phillips loves Leeds, it’s just hard to imagine this one happening any time soon.
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