Liverpool to listen to offers for Nat Phillips
By Tom Gott
Liverpool have decided they will listen to offers for centre-back Nat Phillips this summer to avoid watching him tumble down the pecking order next season.
The 24-year-old had been expected to quietly leave the club last summer but was drafted in as emergency cover following injuries to Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip. Phillips ended up making 20 appearances in all competitions, impressing towards the end of the season as Liverpool booked a spot in the Champions League.
With Phillips' stock now the highest it has ever been, ESPN state Liverpool are ready to cash in on the defender before his contract comes to an end next summer.
The belief is that Phillips would not be too happy tumbling down the pecking order behind Van Dijk, Gomez, Matip and imminent arrival Ibrahima Konate, and that obviously means he's not going to jump at the chance to sign a new contract.
With that in mind, Liverpool will listen to offers for the 24-year-old this summer. There's no mention of just what fee would be needed to sign the defender - his expiring contract puts a ceiling on that amount anyway - but earlier reports suggested Liverpool could demand around £10m.
Heading into the @ChampionsLeague next season like... ? pic.twitter.com/vedIq0Upvo
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) May 23, 2021
Phillips himself recently suggested that he would prefer to stay at Anfield, telling LFCTV: "Don’t get me wrong, even though I feel like this season has been successful for me I know I’ve got plenty to work on and plenty to improve on and that’s what I will be doing in the off season.
"I’ll have a little break and then get back to training on my own and working on things that maybe you don’t get the opportunity to work on during the season because it’s so intense. So, I’ll be doing that and hopefully have a strong pre-season and just continue to develop and build on what I have so far this year."
The Reds are also prepared to offload fellow centre-back saviour Rhys Williams, although Liverpool's preference would be to loan out the 20-year-old.
Klopp is planning to have Van Dijk, Gomez and Konate as his preferred trio of defenders, with Matip seen as reliable cover, so there is no place for Phillips, Williams or Schalke loanee Ozan Kabak.
Liverpool have decided against triggering their £18m option to sign Kabak permanently and will instead send him back to Schalke, who could cash in and send him to Leipzig as a replacement for Liverpool-bound Konate.