West Ham United transfer news: £30m-plus permanent option emerges in Kalvin Phillips deal with Manchester City – Sky Sports
Kalvin Phillips will cost West Ham approximately €40million [£34.2m] to make his loan move permanent in the summer, according to Florian Plettenberg.
The Sky Sports Germany journalist reported via Twitter that the Irons have secured an option in their agreement with Manchester City to buy the England midfielder at the end of the season.
Phillips’ switch to the London Stadium is now a “done deal” ahead of his medical this week, which Plettenberg reports will be held on Thursday (25 January).
The Irons have come out on top of a host of interested clubs to agree a deal with City, with the Hammers believed to be covering 100% of his wages.
Investment
There is not yet word on whether the Irons have paid an up-front loan fee, with the European champions believed to have been asking for as much as £7m, but the fact that they have agreed to cover all of his salary, believed to be around £130,000-a-week [Standard, 18 January] may have brought it down if there is one.
Either way this certainly looks like West Ham are angling to keep hold of Phillips if all goes to plan, and if they do so it seems to be pretty good value.
The club are thought to have bid £50m for the 28-year-old when he was still at Leeds United [Guardian], and while he is now two years older and out of match-practice a permanent transfer that would be worth less than £40m even with a loan fee included isn’t bad business.
The fact that Phillips has barely played for Pep Guardiola (31 appearances with just six starts) does mean that there isn’t anywhere near as much mileage in his legs over the past 18 months as might otherwise have been.
If the money is there for West Ham to be doing this sort of business then, assuming he maintains the levels that got him into the England team, it should be a solid move as long as it doesn’t eat up the budget for moves in attack and defence.
In theory it could now mean that within a year the club will have sold Declan Rice to Arsenal for £105m [Sky Sports, 17 July], and replaced him with three players for that money, with Edson Alvarez costing £35.4m from Ajax [Sky Sports, 10 August], James Ward-Prowse a £30m purchase from Southampton [Sky Sports, 14 August], and potentially now Phillips with the rest.
Few wanted to see the former captain leave but plenty would have accepted the possible three-for-one trade-off ahead of his exit.
In other West Ham news, a striker the Irons are chasing wants to move to the Premier League instead of options in Europe, with a decision on his future now imminent.
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