Stuart Dallas wants to see Kalvin Phillips playing in the Premier League, wearing the white of Leeds United

Whites fans are anxiously waiting an announcement regarding Phillips’ Elland Road future, which the club and the player’s agent have both said is close to being sorted.

Talks have been taking place for weeks and although the feeling around the club is that good news is on the horizon, it cannot come soon enough for a fanbase that breathed a collective sigh of relief when the summer transfer window closed.

Phillips’ team-mates are just as hopeful as everyone else that the local lad pens a new contract.

Dallas took the club’s rejection of eye-watering summer offers for Phillips, from Premier League clubs, as a sign of their desire to achieve.

He said: “Absolutely [it’s a boost for the players]

“For a player like Kalvin to remain at the club, I think that shows ambition from the club.”

There’s little doubt that 23-year-old Phillips will eventually go on and experience top flight football, with or without his beloved boyhood club Leeds United.

He was a major summer transfer target for Aston Villa and Leeds chose to knock back a bid in excess of £20m for their defensive midfielder.

Dallas certainly wouldn’t begrudge his team-mate the chance to showcase his ability on England’s biggest stage, he would just rather it happened with Leeds.

“Us as players, of course we want to see your mates playing at the highest level they can, but we want it to be with us,” he told the YEP.

“Kalvin has an opportunity to do that and he’s a big part of our team.”

When Dallas arrived from Brentford in 2015, Phillips was just 19 and a regular starting place was still ahead of him.

Over the past four years, the Northern Irishman has watched his young team-mate grow into one of Leeds United’s most influential players.

Now Dallas sees him as an example, someone who can pass on his experience to the 19-year-olds currently making their first team breakthrough, like another home-grown defensive midfielder, Alfie McCalmont.

“He’s a local lad, he knows what it means to play for Leeds,” said Dallas, of Phillips.

“He’s come on such a long way in the past couple of years.

“Alfie for one, playing in that position, can learn loads off Kalvin, seeing the way his career has just shot up in the last couple of years.”

If the club can get the deal over the line and further secure the services of a player dubbed the ‘best young midfielder in England’ by Leeds managing director Angus Kinnear, it will be celebrated as much in the dressing room as in the stands.

“We’re delighted he’s potentially committing his future to the club,” said Dallas.

“I don’t know what’s happening with it, but we as players and his friends off the pitch hope he’s with us for a long time to come.”