£10m Leeds United-linked defender makes honest admission on Liverpool future after successful loan spell

Nat Phillips is not looking too far into the future but has suggested he would like to be playing regular football amid ongoing reports linking him to Leeds United.

Phillips has been regularly linked with a move to Elland Road over the past 12 months, with reports last summer suggesting Liverpool would have been open to a sale for around £10million. Daniel Farke’s side eventually moved to sign Joe Rodon on loan and Phillips spent his campaign at Celtic and Cardiff City, the latter of which he joined on loan in January.

The 27-year-old returned to Liverpool once Cardiff’s Championship campaign had finished but continues to be linked with a move away, with Leeds’ name likely to resurface in reports as summer closes in. Nothing has been decided yet, however, and Phillips insists he is solely focused on returning to his parent club for pre-season and taking it from there.

“I’ve enjoyed my period of playing regularly,” Phillips told LFC TV of his loan spell at Cardiff. “Looking to the summer, sometimes you can worry and overthink things too much. You can only control what you can control. The plan is to go back in pre-season and just take it from there.”

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Should Phillips want to continue that spell of regular football, then it is likely he would need to leave Liverpool this summer. A new manager is due at Anfield and reinforcements are to be expected across the board which would push the defender further down the pecking order.

Defensive reinforcements will be high up on the list of priorities at Leeds, regardless of what league they are in next season. Promotion to the Premier League would increase the likelihood of Joe Rodon’s loan being made permanent but another year in the Championship might put him out of reach financially, depending on Tottenham’s valuation and how much money needs to be spent elsewhere.

Leeds look set to lose three senior defenders as things stand, with the contracts of Luke Ayling, Liam Cooper and Sam Byram all set to expire in June. There will also be speculation around Charlie Cresswell, who looked set to leave in January due to a lack of football and has barely featured since.