Journalist Dean Jones has claimed that Kalvin Phillips has to be the main midfielder that Aston Villa look at in the summer amid rumours linking him with a Villa Park switch.
Aston Villa has been heavily linked with Kalvin Phillips ahead of the summer transfer window, with the fee rumoured to be £60m.
Their competitors are thought to be Newcastle United and West Ham United, who are also interested in Phillips’ signature.
Phillips has missed a large chunk of games this season due to an injury that he picked up in early December against Brentford, and he has featured just twice this calendar year, both times from the bench.
With Phillips being linked to Aston Villa, Jones spoke to GiveMeSport and claimed that he ‘ticks so many boxes’ for what Steven Gerrard is looking for.
He said: “I think Kalvin Phillips ticks so many boxes for what they’re looking for. That has to be seen right now as their number-one target in that area of the field.”
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TIF Thoughts on Dean Jones’ comments…
While Phillips has been injured for a large period of time this season, last term he was a star performer for Leeds United. In the Premier League, he had the highest average player rating (7.21), had the third-highest tackles per game (2.6) and had the highest average accurate long passes per game (4.7), as per SofaScore.
Since the introduction of Jesse Marsch as Leeds manager, the Whites’ form has seen a drastic change, as they have recently won three and drawn one of their last four Premier League games. So with the recent good form, Phillips may be inclined to stay at the club and see where the American coach can take them in the future.
However, Aston Villa are a club on the up, and Philippe Coutinho could sign a permanent deal in the summer, which could be ambition enough for Phillips to sign with the club in the summer.