Neil Jones reports that Liverpool are willing to sell Nathaniel Phillips if the right bid is made but there is no rush to offload a player whose value has increased by 1150% in one season.
The 24-year-old was an unlikely hero for Liverpool this season as he helped Jurgen Klopp navigate through an unprecedented injury crisis which saw every player that the German played at centre-back pick up at least one injury.
Virgil van Dijk suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear that was operated on before Joe Gomez suffered a patellar tendon injury which has the club concerned while Joel Matip suffered an ankle injury that kept him on the sidelines from January until the end of the season.
All in all, Klopp was forced to field 20 different centre-back pairings and while Ibrahima Konate will help prevent Liverpool from succumbing to another injury crisis, Phillips isn’t being rushed out the door.
As Jones reports, Liverpool are sympathetic to Phillips’ desire to play regular football but they want to recoup as much as they can for the Englishman and with Stoke City looking for £20m in exchange for Nathan Collins, a player without Premier League experience, the Reds will look to get a similar fee.
Transfermarkt valued Phillips at £1.6m before his run in the starting XI and assuming that Michael Edwards can get £20m for Phillips, that would mean his value has increased by 1150% over the last year.
Brighton and Burnley reportedly lead the race to sign Phillips while Newcastle United and Southampton are also interested. For me, Burnley seems like the perfect team for the Liverpool defender to join given his impressive aerial ability.
After he went on loan with Stuttgart in 2019, Jones says he also has ‘admirers in Europe’ but I imagine if an offer came in from the Premier League he would prefer to stay in England.
I’d love to see him stay at Anfield next season but I totally understand his desire to go out and get more game time.