£45m player would prefer move to Newcastle over European giants in January

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Newcastle United target Kalvin Phillips is understood to prefer a move within the Premier League after it emerged that Juventus were interested in the Manchester City man.

Phillips is currently unhappy at Man City and is hoping to leave in January so that he can fight for his place in the England team and return to playing regular first-team minutes.

TuttoJuve are now reporting that, despite Juventus’ interest, Phillips would prefer to stay in England, with Newcastle still leading the race for the 27-year-old.

Phillips likely to leave in January

All rumours suggest that Phillips is destined to leave the Etihad in January with Pep Guardiola not overly impressed with the former Leeds man’s performances since joining last summer for a fee of around £45m.

Phillips himself, who rejected moves in the summer to fight for his place under Pep, is also keen to get away with the Carabao Cup tie against Newcastle at St James’ Park his only start this season.

A loan move has been suggested as Newcastle look to replace the suspended Sandro Tonali who is banned until August 2024, but Eddie Howe may be keen to keep the midfielder permanently to add some quality in depth to his squad for longer than six months.

Both Newcastle and Juventus are known to be interested in Phillips, but there are still a number of other teams, including Arsenal as reported by TuttoJuve, who have placed the midfielder on their radar and could be waiting to make a move in January.

Phillips not keen on Juventus move

While it may not have been the norm in the past, a number of English internationals have left England for a European side to revitalise or boost their career. In Italy alone Chris Smalling, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have all enjoyed successful spells with Roma and AC Milan.

However, Phillips is not so keen on following in their footsteps despite growing interest from Juventus who were recently viewed as Newcastle’s biggest competitors.

This is great news for Howe’s side who will now be the frontrunners for the midfielder’s signature if they can provide an attractive offer to both Man City and Phillips.