Kalvin Phillips signs clear for Everton after Kevin Thelwell transfer pledge

Everton are interested in signing Kalvin Phillips on loan from Manchester City but is it a calculated risk worth taking or another misguided move for a talent on the wane?

The Blues got their fingers burned over another England international midfielder Dele Alli on the final day of the winter window in 2022 which just happened to be the same day that Frank Lampard was appointed. With the former Chelsea manager already bringing in Donny van de Beek on loan from Manchester United and the club having used up their other domestic loan slot earlier in the month by acquiring Anwar El Ghazi from Aston Villa three days before Rafael Benitez was sacked (the winger would play just 11 minutes of action in the shape of two brief cameos off the bench against Leeds United and Manchester City), Dele had to come in on a permanent deal.

As everyone in football knows, Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy strikes a hard bargain and the notoriously tough negotiator – who the ECHO understands later that year agreed a price for Richarlison with his Everton counterpart Bill Kenwright in Scott’s, at a swanky Mayfair seafood restaurant, only to try and reduce his offer – allowed the Blues to take Dele on an initial free transfer but inserted a number of appearance-related fees and other clauses that could potentially drive up the cost to around £40million. As it turned out, the player, who four years earlier had been rated as the most-valuable midfielder in the world by the prestigious CIES Football Observatory was unable to recapture such form anyway.

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Dele, who never played a full game for Everton, started just one game for the Blues, the 5-1 defeat to Arsenal on the final day of the 2021/22 season after Lampard’s side had secured their Premier League status with a dramatic 3-2 comeback win at home to Crystal Palace three days earlier. Other than that, he was restricted to a dozen substitute appearances before an ill-fated loan spell at Besiktas.

Dele didn’t play at all this season with an interview with Gary Neville coming out last July in which he spoke frankly about a number of off-the-field issues he suffered throughout both his childhood and adult life and this was followed by more injury disappointment. While his contract expires at the end of this month, Everton announced ahead of their final game of the season that he will remain with them while he continues an intensive rehabilitation programme from a long-term groin injury, which he has recently been undergoing away from Merseyside.

Phillips, at 28, is the same age as Dele but if the Blues were able to get him on a temporary move they could at least try before they potentially buy. Director of football Kevin Thelwell has made it clear that a sustainable football model has to be built on astute trading, in and out of the club and a loan move for the Etihad Stadium outcast could fit the bill in this respect in terms of a thrifty acquisition.

Phillips has only ever started two Premier League games for Manchester City, suffering the ignominy of manager Pep Guardiola claiming he was overweight, a remark that the Catalan later apologised for. After an underwhelming loan spell at West Ham United in the second half of this season, his current stock is low.

Snapped up by David Moyes on January 26, Phillips endured a nightmare debut at home to Bournemouth on February 1 as his error in the third minute, passing the ball to visiting striker Dominic Solanke, gifted the Cherries a goal in a 1-1 draw. He went on to make just eight appearances in total for the Hammers but failed to complete a match and over than his aforementioned first outing, he only played more than 45 minutes once in a 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

But while the standout figures around the player once dubbed ‘The Yorkshire Pirlo’ from his time in east London might seem underwhelming, there are a few golden nuggets of potential that can be spotted when sifting through his statistics on Comparisonator. During Phillips’ time at West Ham United, only two other Premier League players in his position, Manchester City pair Bernardo Silva (3.4) and Rodri (2.63) could better his 2.58 progressive runs per 90 minutes.

Also when it came to ‘picking-ups’ (situations where neither side has possession and a player gets to the loose ball first), Phillips was again third in the division on 4.45 behind Manchester United’s Scott McTominay (4.79) and Nottingham Forest’s Ryan Yates (4.73). Given that he also makes the top six for ball recoveries (10.31) in a category topped by Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister (11.59), there are signs that he can still reach the kind of levels that earned him his £42million transfer from home city club Leeds United in 2022.

We already know that the Blues boss is a fan. Revealing he tried to sign Phillips in 2019 when he was manager of Burnley, Dyche said of Phillips in 2021: “I liked him then and I like him now, I think he’s a very good player who has shown that.”

*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.