Eddie Howe and Newcastle United are interested in signing Kalvin Phillips from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City this summer.
That’s according to The Sun, who claim that Newcastle are one of three teams in the race to sign Phillips.
West Ham United are keen whilst Phillips is also wanted by his former club Leeds United.
However, it’s stated that City would expect to get their money back on Phillips having spent £42million on him last summer.
That may be a tough ask given that Phillips has endured a difficult season this term.
Despite City splashing huge money on him last summer, Phillips hasn’t started a single Premier League game this season.
In fact, Phillips has only appeared in five Premier League games as a substitute, totalling just 56 minutes.
Gareth Southgate remains a big fan but Phillips may well need to leave City already in order to play regularly.
Newcastle must not accept Bruno Guimaraes for Kalvin Phillips swap
These rumours about Newcastle’s interest in Phillips come just a week after a concerning rumour for Magpies fans.
The Sunday Mirror (19/03, p78) reported that Manchester City were showing an interest in signing Newcastle star Bruno Guimaraes.
The report even suggested that City were willing to send Phillips to Newcastle in a part-exchange deal for the Brazilian.
We can understand why Newcastle would be keen on Phillips, who has been hailed as ‘exceptional’ by pundit Danny Higginbotham.
The 27-year-old was an outstanding holding midfielder at Leeds and Newcastle would no doubt love to add an anchor man to allow Bruno to go forward.
That’s the key here – the idea would be to play Phillips and Bruno together.
Newcastle cannot lose Bruno; he is absolutely vital to their hopes of consistently challenging for the Champions League down the line.
If Newcastle can negotiate a decent fee for Phillips then he could be what Eddie Howe wants, but if signing him would involve losing Bruno, the Magpies must walk away.
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