Newcastle clear to sign ‘unbelievable’ player in January, move will not be blocked

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Newcastle United are now very close to securing their first deal of the January window as club confirm they will not stand in the way of a possible transfer.

Kalvin Phillips is now on the verge of joining Tyneside on loan with Manchester City keen to offload the midfielder for at least the rest of the season.

TalkSPORT have reported that City will not stand in the way of Phillips leaving and that Newcastle are very keen on bringing the 28-year-old in on loan in January as they cannot afford to sign him permanently.

Phillips’ transfer to Newcastle now looks imminent

Newcastle have effectively been given the green light from City to sign the England international who has been described as an ‘outstanding‘ player by his former Leeds teammate Jack Harrison.

Eddie Howe is a huge fan of Phillips and has been hoping to bring him in for a while now after the suspension of Sandro Tonali which has left a huge hole in Newcastle’s team this season.

Newcastle’s interest goes back to the summer, but Phillips was focused on his career at Manchester and believed that he could force his way in to Pep Guardiola’s team, though that proved to be too tough a task.

Now, with a European tournament on the horizon in the summer, the ex-Leeds man wants to make sure he’s got his spot booked with the England team by getting back to full fitness and playing regular Premier League football once again.

Newcastle’s only concern about signing the City midfielder

One thing that will worry Newcastle fans should this deal go through is that Phillips has hardly played any first-team football for City since signing last summer for £45m.

Taking Anthony Gordon as an example, it had taken him over six months and a pre-season to get to the fitness level that Howe demands all of his players be at and that was after having played consistently for Everton.

To throw Phillips into the team during a very intense season in which Newcastle are again trying to play their usual high-pressing game is going to be a huge risk.

It may be a case of Phillips spending the six months on loan at the club just trying to get up to speed, though he does have a history of playing high intensity football under Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds, so there is certainly hope.