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Dean Smith opens up on Leeds United, Aston Villa transfer saga

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Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has confirmed that the club were interested in signing Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips this summer.

Injury means that Phillips will not be involved when the two clubs go head to head at Villa Park this evening, but it seems the midfielder has still been on the minds of the opposition in the build-up to this one.

Having emerged as a key player for Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa, Phillips has not surprisingly attracted plenty of speculation with regards to transfer in the past, with Villa one of the clubs linked with the midfielder.

Now it seems it as though those links with Phillips and Villa were indeed accurate, with Smith seemingly confirming as much here.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Friday’s match between the two sides, Smith was asked if Phillips was a target for his club, with the Villa boss quoted by The Daily Star as saying: “He was on a list of players that we were interested in.”

Despite that, it seems Leeds’ demands were always going to be too much for Villa to meet, with Smith going on to add“As far as I was aware it never got past initial talks stage with the price tag they wanted and rightly so if you look at their season last year and what they’re doing now.”

As things stand, there are still four years remaining on Phillips’ deal at Elland Road, securing his future with Leeds until the end of the 2023/24 season.

Given the quality Phillips has shown in recent seasons, it is perhaps no surprise to see that Villa have been interested in the midfielder recently.

However, as a Whites academy graduate and boyhood fan, it was always going to be unlikely that Phillips would leave the club this summer, just when he was going to get the chance to play for them in the Premier League this season.

Indeed, it is good to see that Leeds stood their ground here in regards to their valuation of Phillips, and his current contract situation means they are in a strong position to do that for some time to come yet.

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UCLan Sports Journalism graduate. Have been working for Leeds All Over since summer 2020, and can only be found writing on Football League World.