Here is your Leeds United morning digest for Friday, May 1.
Darren Bent believes Leeds must go up to keep Phillips
Meanwhile, former Tottenham, Sunderland and Aston Villa striker Darren Bent believes that Leeds are unlikely to keep Phillips if they’re not in the Premier League next season.
“If Leeds were not to go up, I think any team in the Premier League could tempt him away because it’s the Premier League,” Bent told Football Insider
“Even though Leeds are a massive, massive club, if, for whatever reason, they didn’t go up this season, it could be any team, it could be Burnley, any team in the Premier League you want, anyone would be able to tempt him away.
“I think he would get at least a top-ten Premier League team because he’s that good.”
Liverpool mayor suggests prematurely ending season
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has suggested bringing an early end to the football season amid health and safety fears of people gathering to break social distancing guidelines, even if games were played behind closed doors.
The remarks would certainly also apply to the situation in Leeds, where Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites are currently in limbo, top of the Championship and close to ending a wait of more than 15 years without Premier League football.
"I think the best thing to do is to actually end the season," he told the BBC.
"It isn't just about Liverpool - they've clearly won the league - they deserve it, they should be crowned league champions.”
"The bottom line is, though, this is about health and safety and people's lives and I think football should have to come second in regards to making a choice here.
"There's not many people who would respect what we were saying and stay away from the ground, a lot of people would come to celebrate so I think it's a non-starter."
The man keeping Kalvin Phillips at Leeds United
LeedsLive’s Digital Sports Writer Beren Cross has written about Kalvin Phillips’ future at his boyhood club.
The report suggests that Leeds would be in a difficult position if a Premier League club came in with a big-money offer again this summer, but in Marcelo Bielsa they have a coach that could convince him to stay, having had a transformative effect on the academy graduate’s career.
"I never thought I'd be able to do this well,” said Phillips earlier in the season.
"With the way he makes us train at 100 percent every day, he makes us watch videos on our games, he goes back and tells us what we've done wrong and right.
"He mostly focuses on the stuff we've done wrong, but when you do something right you know you've done well."
