Another former Leeds United player could join Kalvin Phillips at Ipswich Town amid £8m 'interest'

Former Leeds United man Kalvin Phillips could end up partnering another recent Elland Road exit in midfield this season, with reports of interest from Ipswich Town in Glen Kamara.

Phillips is yet to rediscover the form he enjoyed under Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds and in a bid to get more regular football under his belt, joined Premier League new-boys Ipswich on a season-long loan. Fitness issues have continued to hamper the midfielder but there have been flashes of growing confidence in his eight top-flight starts.

The 29-year-old will hope to make more of an impact in 2025 and could be joined by another former Leeds midfielder as Ipswich fight to remain in the Premier League. There have been several recent reports of interest in Kamara and TBR Football has now named Portman Road as a possible destination for the Finland international.

Ipswich and Southampton ‘keen’ on Kamara

The report claims Ipswich and Southampton are both weighing up a move for Kamara in January, less than five months after he left Leeds for Stade Rennais in an £8.4million deal. The Premier League pair are also joined by three Championship promotion hopefuls with Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Burnley also thought to be keen on a mid-season move.

Kamara enjoyed a decent start to life in France, starting regularly and impressing under the manager who signed him, Julien Stéphan. But the 29-year-old has fallen out of favour since Stéphan’s November exit, with new boss Jorge Sampaoli looking elsewhere for midfield options.

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Rennes have also recently confirmed the €20m (£16.6m) signing of midfielder Seko Fofana, which will only push Kamara further down the pecking order. And so a return to England could be on the cards for Leeds’ former player, and a move to Portman Road could see him partner Phillips in the middle of the park.

Phillips’ Leeds return stance

Phillips is still trying to get his career back on track after leaving Leeds for Manchester City in the summer of 2022. The combative midfielder caught the eye of Pep Guardiola during an outstanding debut Premier League campaign and after keeping his boyhood club from relegation the following season, left for the Etihad in a deal worth £43m.

That move never paid off and Phillips’ form has fallen off a cliff since, with a six-month loan spell at West Ham United doing little to rebuild his reputation. There was speculation going into last summer that Leeds could be open to reunion if promotion was achieved, although Elland road recruitment chiefs were fully aware of the financial difficulties in sanctioning that kind of deal.

As it happened, play-off final defeat to Southampton made a move for Phillips all-but impossible. Promotion would only have fuelled speculation over a return but the midfielder recently admitted his Elland Road comeback would not have been a foregone conclusion.

“I went to that game [play-off final] and was devastated they didn’t go up,” Phillips told the East Anglian Daily Times in November. “Obviously I wanted Leeds to get promoted. It’s a club very close to my heart. Even if Leeds had been promoted and Ipswich had maybe come up in the play-offs then it still would have been a very close call as to where I’d have gone because I just love the story of Ipswich.”