Winners and losers from Kalvin Phillips’ transfer to Man City
Robin Bairner
- 25 Jun 2022 14:21 BST
- 3 min read
Manchester City are set to complete another major piece of transfer business as they close in on Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips.
Phillips is a player who was wanted by many of the Premier League’s top clubs this season, but it is City who have won the race for the England international, who is set to sign in a deal worth around £45 million.
It is a transfer that promises to have far-reaching consequences, but just who will benefit and who will miss out?
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The winners
Manchester City clearly come out of this deal looking good. Signing any England international player for a fee under £50m is not easy in the current climate, yet they have got a player who is approaching his peak years and who still had a couple of years left on his contract. This is good business from them.
Similarly, England are likely to benefit from the deal – at least in the short term. In the build up to the World Cup, Phillips is unlikely to have the volume of minutes at City that he would have had at Leeds, lessening the chances of him becoming injured while also increasing his energy levels ahead of Qatar 2022.
Arsenal stand to be benefactors, too. City are raising the money for this deal by selling off Gabriel Jesus to the Emirates club for a price virtually identical to the one City are spending on Phillips. This appears a solid trade all round given that Erling Haaland would have frozen the Brazil star out, making Jesus a winner from this trade, too.
The losers
Phillips to Man City is a transfer that has left fans of several clubs unhappy. Leeds supporters are furious that they are about to lose a star player, an academy graduate, no less, for a fee below typical market value.
Meanwhile, Manchester United fans are seething that their club allowed City to swoop in and pinch the 26-year-old. Even if Phillips was unlikely to move to Man Utd due to his affiliation with Leeds and the historic rivalry between the clubs, that the Red Devils have made little transfer progress compared to City is galling for supporters.
The other big losers from this transfer are Tottenham. They are interested in Raphinha but with Leeds on a stronger financial footing after selling off a key figure, it means in a stroke that their asking price for the winger will go up. Arsenal also fall into this category, but at least the Phillips deal triggers their Gabriel Jesus transfer.
