West Brom should be disappointed after missing out on Manchester United’s rejuvenated Phil Jones this summer

Follow us on Google Discover

Phil Jones is back to his best at Manchester United – but he could have rejoined Jonny Evans at West Brom according to summer reports.

A month or two ago, the prospect of Phil Jones swapping Manchester United for West Brom did not seem too ridiculous.

The Mirror reported in July that The Baggies, who have previously lured Darren Fletcher and Jonny Evans from Old Trafford, were set to launch a bid for Jones with the summer arrival of Victor Lindelof from Benfica expected to push him down the pecking order.

Instead, Lindelof has started life in Manchester slowly with Jose Mourinho keen to give him time to adapt while Jones has stepped up in the meantime to produce some of his finest performances since moving from Blackburn Rovers for £16 million seven years ago.

‘The best defender’

Suddenly, after two years in the wilderness, Jones is even starting for England again with manager Gareth Southgate signing the rejuvenated 25-year-old’s praises.

“Not just this season but there was a long period in the middle of last season where I think he has been the best defender,” Southgate told Sky Sports before picking Jones to start in World Cup qualifying victories over Malta and Slovakia.

“He’s got very good composure on the ball. He’s got the reading of the game, he’s aggressive in his defending – which I like – and I think he has got fantastic experience, although he is still only relatively young.”

Suddenly, West Brom’s reported pursuit of the £10 million-rated defender, who has started just 24 league games in the last two seasons due to injury, is making more and more sense. Pulis is reportedly a keen admirer of the versatile defender, who could give West Brom further options at centre-half and right-back.

Yet, so is Jose Mourinho, the Manchester United manager starting Jones in each of the first three Premier League games this season. West Brom pulled off a major coup landing Evans in 2015 but it doesn’t look as if they will be repeating the trick.