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Pope: Phillips bid a ‘big test’ for Leeds

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BBC Leeds journalist Adam Pope has responded after a report claimed that former Championship rivals Aston Villa were set to make a £14m bid for Kalvin Phillips.

John Percy from the Telegraph broke the news on Wednesday night and the report stated that Leeds would demand £20million for their star player.

Pope said that Aston Villa were just one of several admirers in the player and that this would constitute a “big test” for the club.

OPINION

Leeds fans knew this was going to happen but they probably wouldn’t have been expecting a bid to come from Aston Villa. That will be especially painful after their former Championship rivals shot up the table in the second-half of the season with an unlikely strong of consecutive wins to make the play-offs. Leeds had been in the top-two for most of the season but missed out on automatic promotion and then in the play-offs to Derby, who went on to surrender the play-off final. We think that Marcelo Bilesa will want to keep Phillips and this is what Pope is referring to when he says it’s going to be a “big test”. We doubt that Leeds would sell hm if Bielsa draws a line in the sand but an opening bid of £14million suggests they could get near the £20million they want. And that’s a lot of money for a club who are struggling financially. Would Bielsa sanction a move if he was guaranteed the £20million for reinforcements? If he could find a Phillips replacement, that would have to be tempting. 

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