DONE DEAL: Guardiola signs one of the BEST English players
It had been on the works for a while and it has been confirmed now, Manchester City adds one of the top English talents to their squad
Pep Guardiola's Manchester City never stops working and they already have their third signing for the 2022-23 season. The name this is English midfielder Kalvin Phillips of Leeds United. The Citizens, as reported by both journalist Fabrizio Romano and The Athletic, will pay around 42 million pounds (about 50 million euros) to sign the player in a deal that could amount to 50 million pounds with addons.
Kalvin Phillips has been one of Leeds United's best performers for a while
Despite being inactive between December 2021 and April 2022 due to injury, Kalvin Phillips was one of City's targets to reinforce the midfield, an area that will no longer have the Brazilian Fernandinho, who left the club at the end of the 2021-22 season.
For his part, Phillips had already rejected offers from other clubs for him as his main interest was to move to Guardiola's team. Born in the city of Leeds in 1995, Kalvin Phillips has played his entire career at his youth club. It is speculated that, with the arrival of Phillips to the Sky Blue team will be making room in midfield by moving Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko, who could leave the entity.
Leeds coach, the American Jesse Marsch, already knew of the great interest in the market for Phillips and warned weeks ago of his intention for him to stay: "The renewal talks are coming down the road. I would love to keep guys like Kalvin Phillips, Patrick Bamford and Raphinha for as long as possible. I haven't talked about long-term futures with everyone, it's about the present and living in the moment now". Brazilian winger Raphinha is another who could soon leave the Whites.
As reported by The Athletic, there will be another deal linking Manchester City and Leeds United, in concrete the sale of Citizens youngster Darko Gyabi, who could be moving to Elland Road. While many have spectulated that it was part of the Kalvin Phillips deal, according to journalist David Ornstein "that transfer is being discussed separately to the Phillips deal".
Kalvin Phillips has already reached an agreement with Manchester City on personal terms - as he turned down other clubs to work under Pep. Here we go. %uD83D%uDEA8%uD83D%uDD35%uD83E%uDD1D #MCFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 24, 2022
Man City will pay £42m, overall deal close to £50m with add-ons.
Leeds have accepted, as @David_Ornstein reported. pic.twitter.com/46a4NNq8P7
"Kalvin was never a sprinter, but if you turned up two days after the game, he was still there running up and down the pitch. People think Marcelo Bielsa did it, but he's always been like that. He was always a central midfielder too, he always played number ten behind the striker but you couldn't ask him to stay on the pitch, that didn't make sense. He wanted to be the one to clear the ball from the goal line and then score at the other end, very similar to how he plays now", said one of Bielsa's assistants, when the Argentine trained Leeds United.
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