KALVIN PHILLIPS would have to accept a huge pay cut to return to Leeds United, according to reports.
The midfielder has suffered a difficult few years since leaving Elland Road.
He failed to break into the Manchester City first-team and is now struggling to recapture his form on loan at West Ham.
That means he could begin a new chapter in the summer and his boyhood club Leeds are an option.
Daniel Farke’s side would first need to secure promotion to land the England star, and might have to fight off interest from a number of other clubs.
They would also have to persuade Phillips to take a drastic pay cut from his £150,000 weekly wage, report the Daily Star.
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Leeds’ current highest earner is Patrick Bamford on £70,000-a-week.
But Phillips could be willing to leave his mega-money City contract to return to Elland Road, where he remains a cult hero.
City are also said to be open to letting him leave – for around £25million.
That could spark a bid from Newcastle, who hold a long-term interest in the 28-year-old.
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Phillips’ West Ham loan is a disaster… it’s toe-curlingly difficult to watch, says Dave Kidd
By Dave Kidd
HE’S had an extraordinary career, Kalvin Phillips.
A Treble-winner and one of only 12 living Englishmen to have started the final of a major international tournament.
A home-town hero at Leeds, where he was the kingpin of Marcelo Bielsa’s buccaneering Championship-winning side and feted as the ‘Yorkshire Pirlo’.
England’s Player of the Year in 2021, when the Three Lions reached a final for the first time in more than half a century.
Indeed, Phillips has featured in most of England’s best wins of the last three years — against Germany and Denmark at those Euros, home and away in qualifiers against Italy, against a Belgium side ranked No 1 in the world, the World Cup thrashing of Senegal and in last autumn’s hammering of the Scots.
That record for Gareth Southgate’s side points to a great irony.
If Phillips had stayed put as a Manchester City bench-warmer, he would be going to Germany this summer and quite possibly as a starter.
The mighty man-bun man has been a fine footballer and, at 28, he might become one again.
Phillips is also a good bloke too, much-loved in the England squad and attracting a full house from the entire Leeds staff when the club held a leaving do before his Etihad move in a £45million deal.
But right now Phillips has become unwatchable. Toe-curling, cringeworthy, hide-behind-the-sofa-the-Daleks-are-coming levels of unwatchable.
His loan switch to West Ham, which originally looked sensible for club and player, is an unmitigated disaster.
And it feels as if Phillips is at the centre of a football-wide conspiracy which has deemed that anything which could go wrong, will go wrong.
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Phillips’ West Ham spell has been nothing short of a disaster.
He gave away a goal on debut and was sent off in just his second appearance for the club.
While he also conceded a penalty after coming on against Newcastle on Sunday – a game the Hammers lost despite leading 3-1 at the point Phillips came on.
To make matters even worse Phillips swore at a fan as he boarded the team bus after the match.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
