Tottenham are ready to make a move for Leeds midfielder Kalvin Phillips, according to the Mirror.
One of the Championship’s standout players from last season, Phillips had previously been linked with a move to Aston Villa with Leeds asking for £30million for the 23-year-old.
However, it was reported by the Telegraph earlier today that Villa are now set to seal a deal for holding midfielder Douglas Luiz from Man City.
Tottenham have already signed Jack Clarke from Leeds before loaning the youngster back for the season. Now they’ve set their sights on Phillips and are prepared to offer him a big raise on his £10,000-a-week wages.
In the meantime, Leeds are trying to tie him down with a new deal, with his current contract set to run out next summer.
Other suitors include Newcastle, Bournemouth and Wolves but the Mirror claims the latter two have “cooled their interest”.
VERDICT
This might seem like an odd one on the service but the Mirror’s David Anderson is a good source of Leeds information. Spurs have just spent a lot of money on Tanguy Ndombele but he’s less of a defensive midfielder and more of a Pogba-like player. They do have Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and Harry Winks, but Wanyama’s powers are waning and Dier spent a lot of last season injured. They have got room for a homegrown defensive midfielder but Leeds bedding in for £30million could scupper any potential Spurs move. Tottenham could no doubt offer him more money than Leeds and his current wages of £10k-a-week are low. He’s also reportedly rejected the first offer that Leeds have put to him with the club unlikely to be offering Premier League wages, no-matter how important a player he is. It’s been said that Phillips wants to stay at Leeds but if he does he’ll obviously want to maximise his new wages. Could this just be agent agitation to ensure a better deal?