As Kalvin Phillips reportedly takes one big step towards an emotional return to Leeds United, the more pessimistic members of the Elland Road fanbase may be reminded of a phrase which often emerges whenever a homecoming happens.
‘Never go back’.
See, for instance, Kevin Keegan’s ill-fated second spell at Newcastle United. Less ‘Entertainers’ and more ‘EastEnders’, such was the explosive, soap-era style row between ‘Mighty Mouse’ and an owner in Mike Ashley who Newcastle fans may prefer to liken to another form of rodent.
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s first spell in charge of Brazil ended with a World Cup. His second, a 7-1 battering by Germany. From managers to players, Robbie Fowler, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sol Campbell and Ilkay Gundogan may wish, in hindsight, that they had let history stay as history.
So, while there are a few happier examples – see Wayne Rooney at Everton, Juninho at Middlesbrough, Gareth Bale at Tottenham – Kalvin Phillips could return to Leeds United amid substantial doubts about whether the magic of his first spell in the Elland Road engine room can be repeated.
Teamtalk report that there is a ‘verbal agreement’ in place already for former Leeds United favourite Kalvin Phillips to head back to his boyhood club.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are ready to cut him loose – albeit for a hefty £20 million – and it is anticipated that the Ipswich Town loanee would have few reservations about accepting the pay cut required.
Photo by George Wood/Getty Images
Photo by George Wood/Getty Images
Leeds United hero Kalvin Phillips was once a target for Daniel Farke’s Norwich
This is, of course, a deal not short of talking points.
Can Phillips rediscover the ball-playing brilliance of those glorious Marcelo Bielsa days? When he was England’s Player of the Year, a European Championship finalists, and earning a £47 million move to Man City?
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Or, after a miserable stint with West Ham in which just about everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and after finding himself in and out of the Ipswich XI, was Phillips simply another footballer who ascended to levels under Bielsa he is destined to never reach again? See Patrick Bamford, Luke Ayling, Jack Harrison, Gianni Alioski.
Another intriguing supblot in this developing tale, meanwhile, is the Daniel Farke connection.
According to the Daily Mail, Farke’s Norwich City side had tried to lure Phillips from his beloved Elland Road to Carrow Road back in the summer of 2019. The Canaries were reportedly willing to part with £12 million for a man who had blossomed from a mid-table Championship scrapper into one of England’s finest deep-lying playmakers on Bielsa’s watch.
Farke had led Norwich to the Championship title a few weeks prior. The first of two he would win in East Anglia. And who knows how Phillips’ career would have panned out had he jilted Bielsa and Leeds for a Norwich side who would succumb to relegation with whimper that very next year?
By staying at Leeds, amid much internal turmoil, Phillips would be rewarded with a Championship title of his own, a top-half finish in the Premier League, and a regular spot in the England roster.
Phillips turned down Norwich and Aston Villa to stay at Elland Road
“I was basically on the verge of leaving,” Phillips would recall, speaking to The Athletic. Norwich, meanwhile, were not the only newly-promoted side keen to sign a player who’s heart was shattered by Leeds’ play-off collapse against Derby County.
“I was on the verge of saying I wanted to leave but, at the same time, I didn’t want to say it. Aston Villa had been in touch and they’d gone into the Premier League so I knew I could play in the Premier League just like that.
“And us losing in the play-offs killed me a bit. It was hard to take.
“I came in one day and Victor [Orta, Leeds’ director of football at the time] said to me; ‘Listen, if you want to leave then just let me know. If you want to leave, tell me right now and I’ll sell you’. I said; ‘I don’t know’. So Victor said; ‘If you don’t know then I’m not selling you’.
“I’d spoken to my mum, and she was more or less set on me leaving. She was gutted about it. I said to my brother, ‘I think I’m going to leave’, and he was gutted too. But he just said, ‘If it’s the right decision for you, then it’s the right decision’.
“But it wasn’t.”
It’s fair to say, given the speed of his ascent, Kalvin Phillips made the right call six years ago this summer. And, following the rapid nature of his eventual descent from such dizzying heights, Phillips may need Leeds now as much as they needed him in 2019.