Southampton Line Up Club Record Bid for Leeds United Star Kalvin Phillips as Rebuild Begins
Southampton are keen on luring Leeds' Kalvin Phillips to the south coast with a £20m bid being lined up by Ralph Hasenhuttl's side.
The defensive midfielder has played a starring role for Leeds in the Championship this season, with the club in the hunt for promotion to the Premier League with four games of the season remaining.
Reports of the Saints' interest comes courtesy of The Sun newspaper (as picked up by HITC), who claim that the deal can only take place if Leeds fail to win promotion this season, something they are on track to do - currently sitting in second and three points clear of third place Sheffield United.
Should Southampton shell out £20m to bring the 23-year-old to St. Mary's it would be the club's record signing, with their previous highest total being the £19m they forked out to bring Guido Carrillo to the club from Monaco.
ADRIAN DENNIS/GettyImages
It seems sure that Hasenhuttl will look to make additions in the summer, as the Austrian looks to begin crafting his own side from the one left by Mark Hughes, and the former RB Leipzig coach does have track record of nurturing young players into big stars.
However, while he may feel he could unearth another Naby Keita, it seems central, in particular defensive, midfield is an option that Southampton do have numbers in.
The midfield area boasts Oriol Romeu, James Ward-Prowse, Mario Lemina and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who will all provide strong competition for the Leeds-born player.
Clive Mason/GettyImages
It appears the report needs to be taken with a decent amount of salt, however if the rumours are true it could mean a summer exit from the Premier League side for any of the aforementioned names, no matter how unlikely that may be.
