Newcastle believe £45m player wants to join them in January after contact made

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Journalist Dean Jones has now claimed Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips is keen on a move to Newcastle United in January.

Newcastle have been linked with Phillips for some months now, but it hasn’t been clear if the club were looking for a permanent move or to take the midfielder on temporarily.

On the Ranks FC podcast, Jones revealed that Phillips is open to the move, but that Newcastle will only look to get him on loan because they don’t have the freedom to spend a lot of money in January.

Phillips is ‘comfortable’ with moving to Newcastle

The good news for Newcastle is that all looks positive from the players front in this deal. Phillips is quite clearly desperate to leave Man City and views Newcastle as the ideal club to get his career back on track.

The Magpies are also keen to get the deal done as they are in need of midfield reinforcements with injuries and suspensions limiting Eddie Howe to who he can and can’t rotate during a hectic schedule.

One positive of the injury crisis has been the emergence of Lewis Miley. While the signing of Phillips may lessen the teenager’s playing time, it’s likely better for his development that he isn’t playing every game in every week at this stage of his career.

Howe is very keen to have lots of competition for places in every position in the team and players are sure to get their chance to impress with Newcastle still fighting on four fronts.

On the podcast, Jones said: “Now the midfield, we just talked about Kalvin Phillips, as it stands right now, Newcastle have obviously been in touch with reps around this and there is a feeling that Kalvin Phillips is comfortable with the idea of moving to Newcastle, going in there and obviously there’s a spot for him in that midfield.

“If it’s not him, it will be somebody like him and that will happen, they will sign a midfielder.

“It’s going to be on loan, like Newcastle don’t have the freedom in the January market to go out spending money.”

Newcastle may encounter one problem in January

Newcastle have their eyes on Phillips as their top priority in January, but they may struggle to buy the Man City man as they are again limited to what they can spend in the transfer window.

FFP has been a big problem for Newcastle who, realistically, would have liked to overhaul the squad in the summer to prepare for the extra fixtures in the Champions League.

Heading into the window, Phillips is still the main target for Newcastle, but they may have to settle for loaning him from City due to a lack of funds available, according to Jones.