West Ham United set to enter race to sign Manchester City star Kalvin Phillips – Fabrizio Romano
Fabrizio Romano has revealed that he expects West Ham United to join the race to sign Manchester City ace Kalvin Phillips this month.
Writing in his daily update for Substack (16 January), the reliable transfer journalist reports that the plan is for the England international to still leave the club this month despite a deal not progressing so far.
And Romano believes that the Hammers will join the race to sign him as they have always been a big fan of the player, but they will be waiting for City to drop their demands first.
“City will have conversations in the next few days to decide the future of Phillips, but the plan overall remains the same – for him to leave, and for him to have the opportunity to play,” he wrote.
“My expectation is that Newcastle will be there, and Crystal Palace are also interested, and I would add West Ham.
“West Ham have always been big fans of Phillips, so let’s see what happens, but I’d guess as well that these clubs will all hope and wait to see if Man City will reduce their asking price for the player.”
Interesting
We all know the history of Phillips and West Ham, with a huge bid being rejected in the January window before Leeds ended up selling him to Manchester City the following summer for less.
Moyes is a huge fan and he was supposed to be the perfect partner for Declan Rice, but when he left and Rice obviously is now at Arsenal there were question marks about if it would be revisited.
James Ward-Prowse, Edson Alvarez and Tomas Soucek make up the midfield currently and Lucas Paqueta is more than capable of playing deeper too, but Phillips would add a bit of control and more quality depth to the squad.
With his experience a loan would be an ideal option financially, and he would come in hungry and hopeful of making the England squad for Euro 2024 this summer.
West Ham will no doubt be well placed if a deal becomes doable, but it won’t be easy considering the competition for his signature. The board will have to act fast and decisively if they want to get this one done.
In other West Ham news, Hammers willing to pay £40m to sign Premier League outcast this month.