Premier League Nike Flight match ball. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)Premier League Nike Flight match ball. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Premier League Nike Flight match ball. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Leeds United transfer rumours: Leeds send scouts on midweek UCL mission, Whites set to battle Aston Villa for Arsenal star

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa has spoken out about speculation linking Kalvin Phillips with a move to Manchester United.

The Reds are said to be keen on luring the 25-year-old to Old Trafford, but the veteran Argentine has delivered a typically diplomatic appraisal of the matter.

"It depends on the player. It destabilises those who don't know what they want," Bielsa told his pre-Watford press conference when asked whether any transfer chatter could cause Phillips to lose focus at Elland Road.

"With respect to this situation, I have two things that are very clear but before or after Phillips is going to stop playing for Leeds and in the moment and the way that he does it will convert him into an idol forever, I have a feeling, it is intuition.

"I don’t know how the way of thinking of a human being is involved and how all the things around him act that have influence. You can’t account for that and I also don’t know Kalvin intimately.

"But due to the family that he has and how he has managed his decisions since I have known him, I am sure that the day he leaves Leeds and the way that he does it, far from provoking disappointment - of course it is going to generate disappointment - but it is going to solidify his link to the club, the people and the city because I am sure he would only leave if he sees that it is guaranteed that the link to the place where he was born remains in tact.

"He will know how to do it.”

Phillips turned down interest from the Premier League in the form of Villa in 2019 following play-off heartbreak and remained with the side he supported as a boy instead, choosing to help his club into the top flight whilst dismissing the riches it had to offer.

"I think that is a question that Kalvin needs to answer," Bielsa said over any outside interest.

"Of course, for us, he is a very valuable player and we have to adapt ourselves to how he feels belonging to Leeds in the measure that his career develops.

"I have seen in him a conduct that I have very rarely seen in a player. How football is right now, for a player to decline a team above to the level were he is at due to the love of the club where he is at is not frequent and I have the certainty that Kalvin for the rest of his life is going to enjoy for the rest of his life the decisions that he makes.

"He will be loved definitively for always in the place where he was born and where he belongs.

"When you go for the money or for the evolution, you resolve a moment in your sporting career. But when you opt for the affection of your people, you ‘resolve’ your life forever because when you are loved where you are from, the possibilities to be happy increase.”

We’ve gathered the best of today’s Premier League chatter below…