West Ham United should not be put off January move for Kalvin Phillips as transfer news emerges
Manchester City are reportedly open to letting summer West Ham target Kalvin Phillips depart the club in the January transfer window.
According to the i (10 October), Phillips is not short of takers as West Ham, Newcastle United, Liverpool, Everton and Bayern Munich have all showed an interest in the past.
West Ham have since brought in James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez for a combined £65million, but that should not put them off making another approach for Phillips in January.
David Moyes’ favoured starting line-up is now pretty clear to see, with the exception of Mohammed Kudus potentially coming in for Michail Antonio now that the Ghanaian is up to speed following his own summer arrival.
Alvarez, Ward-Prowse and Tomas Soucek are the preferred central-midfield three in a triangle that can rotate, with the latter two usually taking it in turns to push forward into a number 10 role.
Beyond those three, though, Moyes’ options are pretty limited. With another deep European run hopefully on the cards, and a couple of cup competitions to balance on top of Premier League commitments, West Ham would ideally have one more top-quality player in that area.
Look no further than Phillips, who was superb for Leeds United in the Premier League and also starred regularly for England, before flopping after joining City for a fee rising to £55m in July 2022 [Sky Sports].
Injury issues last season did not help, almost costing him a place in Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad, but it appears Pep Guardiola just simply does not rate the man he was so eager to bring in.
That is not to say Phillips cannot still do a job at London Stadium, where he has all the qualities to become a real fan favourite.
If you factor in that the 27-year-old will likely be available for a cut-price fee – City clearly do not want him, after all – then this seems like a move West Ham must at the very least give some strong consideration to ahead of the transfer window reopening.
In other West Ham news, the Hammers have lost another young player to one of their Premier League rivals.