West Ham wanted to sign Kalvin Phillips from Leeds in the January transfer window and his agent has finally broken his silence on the bid submitted for his client.
The Sun claim that the Hammers had been chasing the 26-year-old Leeds midfielder throughout the entire month of January.
That culminated in West Ham apparently making a £55 million for Phillips on deadline day in January.
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Leeds refused the Hammers’ final offer for the England international, however.
It is said that Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa will demand at least £60 million from any club that wishes to prise Phillips away from Elland Road (The Mirror).
That’s an awful lot of money to be paying for Phillips but considering the fact that West Ham made a £55 million bid for the Yorkshireman, it could be argued that we could sign him in the summer.
The 26-year-old may just want to stay at Elland Road by the sounds of it though…
Kalvin Phillips agent breaks silence after January West Ham bid
The Leeds ace is a hugely popular figure in West Yorkshire. He is the most important player Bielsa has at his disposal. And keeping him at the club will be of paramount importance to the Argentine.
Phillips’ agent Kevin Sharp suggested that the Hammers’ bid for his client would have been a record purchase for us and a record sale for Leeds, as quoted by the Sun:
“Kalvin was pleased that Leeds turned those offers down. He has never asked to leave Leeds in all his time with the club and has no intention of doing that now or in the summer. But I understand the offer that was turned down would have been a record for both buying and selling clubs. So I would hope that Leeds would honour their promise of a new contract for him which would then end any unsettling speculation about his future this summer.”
So the bottom line is that West Ham were either used by Phillips’ agent in order to strengthen his leverage to demand a new deal for his client.
Or, the Hammers owners knew that whilst a £55 million bid would sound good, it wouldn’t actually be enough to prise the 26-year-old away from Elland Road. Then they could roll out the old ‘we tried’ excuse.
Whatever way you look at it, Phillips leaving Leeds to join West Ham in the summer seems highly unlikely. The 26-year-old is obviously more than happy in West Yorkshire and if the Whites offer him a shiny new deal in the summer, he will undoubtedly stay put.
And even if he were to leave Leeds, there would undoubtedly be intense competition for his signature from some of Europe’s very biggest clubs.
This one was a pipe dream from the beginning.
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