Kalvin Phillips has already made Manchester United feelings clear amid fresh paper talk - YEP 28/9/21
Leeds United's Kalvin Phillips has already made his feelings towards arch rivals Manchester United abundantly clear.
By Joe Urquhart
The Yorkshire Pirlo, as he is affectionately known in West
Yorkshire, is Whites through and through - becoming the face of the club he
supported as a boy growing up in his home city.
"Describe what Man United means..." Phillips was
asked by BT Sport ahead of August's opening day trip to Old Trafford in the
Premier League.
"To me?" he responded with a large smirk. "It
doesn't mean anything."
Phillips has enjoyed a stunning 12 months since stepping
into the top flight limelight with his boyhood club following his rise through
the Thorp Arch ranks.
An impressive first season of Premier League football, where
Marcelo Bielsa's side finished ninth in the standings, was followed up by
featuring in every game for England under Gareth Southgate in the Three Lions'
charge to the Euro 2020 final.
It is, then, only natural that the rumour mill would begin
to spin and chatter over whether he should be applying his on-pitch skills in a
different shirt going forward.
Aston Villa recently lost their very own Jack Grealish to
Premier League champions Manchester City to the tune of £100m and the lure of
Champions League football - a move that cut deep at Villa Park, though didn't
quite carry the same weight as a potential transfer of a Thorp Arch academy
product to the red half of Manchester.
It would be unthinkable for Leeds and already is for
Phillips. He may one day leave, but not there. Surely not there.
"I would probably say I do dislike Man United,"
Phillips laughed to a foreign broadcaster late last year.
His agent - Kevin Sharp - reiterated those thoughts just
last month, revealing his client had "no desire" to leave Elland Road
in the immediate future after turning down other Premier League options
previously as a Championship player.
Phillips' idol growing up was another homegrown Leeds star
in Alan Smith, who infamously did swap LS11 for the club's old foe in 2004
following the Whites relegation from the Premier League amid a financial
crisis.
Similarities between the two as a focal point for the club
will end right there, Phillips says.
"No, I don't think so," Phillips chuckled at the
prospect of making a similar transfer to United's bitter rivals in future as
the interview continued. "Not at all. My family wouldn't let me!"
It was, of course, his late Granny Val that convinced him to
bat away interest from Aston Villa in 2019 following play-off heartbreak - a
decision which has since paid dividends for his own career and Leeds.
Under Bielsa he has flourished into one of the best
defensive midfielders in Europe. There is no need to indulge the paper talk
that surfaced this week for now, especially involving Old Trafford.
