Former Aston Villa man Gabby Agbonlahor expects the side to shelve their interest in Kalvin Phillips, as he doesn’t think the midfielder would start for the club.
After a meteoric rise at Leeds United which saw Phillips starting for England, his career has stagnated at Manchester City. Indeed, the Englishman has played just 15 times in all competitions since his £45million move, and only two of those were from the start.
A career revival could be possible, with a couple of factors contributing to that. Firstly, Aston Villa are reportedly prepared to hand City back the £45million they paid for Phillips from Leeds.
Indeed, Villans boss Unai Emery is happy to spend a club-record fee to land him. There are no guarantees City will sell, while this season has been a blip and it might seem likely, he could still be in Pep Guardiola’s plans.
It seems that will change if City land Jude Bellingham, though. A subsequent report states Phillips would ‘need to be sold’ if Bellingham joined, in line with Financial FairPlay regulations.
It seems a perfect situation – City might have to get Phillips off their hands and Villa are ready and waiting to make that happen.
Former Villan Agbonlahor cannot see that being the case, though. Indeed, he believes Villa are coping just fine without Phillips, and he’d be an unnecessary signing.
“To be honest, I don’t think he starts,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider.
“I think [Boubacar] Kamara is a better player.
“We’ve also got [Douglas] Luiz, [Jacob] Ramsey, [John] McGinn. I think Villa are ok in central midfield, I really do.”
Indeed, those players have all got recent experience on their side. When given the opportunity, though, there’s no denying Phillips would be a quality asset to possess.
Agbonlahor does not see things that way, as he feels the fee Villa would be paying for him would be a waste.
“I don’t think Phillips starts in our midfield,” he added.
“With the price Man City would want for him, £45million – I just can’t see Villa being interested and following through with a deal.”
Agbonlahor may be right – given Villa’s meteoric rise, which sees them sixth in the league at the moment, they might not need to change the squad too much. It remains to be seen whether or not they will attempt to add Phillips to their ranks for next season.
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