Absolutely class player. Has a real eye for goal too. Can play as 10 or 8 too imo. Can only see him going to West Ham though if was available, can’t see us competing financially unless we get some Saudi money in





Talking of which Newcastle will now make very interesting watching.. it’s not good news for us as suspect they’ll climb the table in Jan

Didn’t see it but heard they were great. Fantastic to hear and testament to our u23 programme. Geldhart in u21s?

It's a sad day for the game. Allowing a journalist killing war criminal into the PL is a new low.

Indeed. It's ok though, they are nothing to do with the takeover apparently...... cough cough cough...

Raphinha absolutely ripping it up for Brazil I see… need to get him a new contract sorted ASAP!! Getting better and better that lad.

agreed. absolute steal of a deal.

The trouble with contracts are they`re not really worth the paper they are written on sadly.

Yes they`re legally binding but if the player really wants to leave and the club get a decent offer the contract will be ripped up.

As a matter of interest how much do we think Raphina and Phillips are worth and how much do you think Leeds would accept?

I would go 60 mill Phillips and maybe 40 mill for Raphina.

Leeds might take 80/85 mill for the 2 imo even with contracts signed.

The football landscape changed last week tho Chapy. £60m waa rumoured to be the price when only Man U was interested in Phillips but now another team could join the bidding which will push prices up lets be honest.



Would Phillips improve the Newcastle midfield? Of course he would. He should be a prime target being English and young.



But the issue Leeds have is that a club like Leicester wont make Europe this year, on current form, which could make a superior midfielder Ndidi available so if Leeds try and turn Phillips into a bidding war one of the interested parties could just drop out.



Its going to be interesting to see how the Toon go about their business.

The contract means Leeds hold all the cards if they want to. Just like with Spurs and Harry Kane. I'd say it would take £80m+ to take Phillips from Leeds and the same again for Raphinha. Raph is a full Brazil international now who is now demonstrating how good he is on the biggest stage. He's also still quite young at 24 with his best yet to come. I've seen many players of his ilk go for £70/£80m.



Both are pretty irreplaceable for Leeds, Leicester have been the masters of it with Kante and Mahrez both being replaced pretty adequately though they've nobody as good as Mahrez in the team, Ndidi was a great find as was Tielemans. You'd have to go to the foreign market and it would be very very difficult to get players of their quality for under £40m a piece.

That's a very good point Marty, I still think Phillips would be the most attractive to teams like City, Man U etc as he's English. Both those teams need a good Def Mid. I don't see Kalvin going to Man U though, i know Smith did it but i don't think Kalvin would but personally i wouldn't hold it against him if he did but I'd be in the minority. I could see a big boy taking Ndidi off Leicester though next season..



Leeds need to show signs of progress over the next two years to retain KP and Raph. Need much more quality coming in.

they would all want phillips.

all of them.

You think they would want him ahead of Rice and Ndidi tho who could both be targets also tho? I guess it comes down to price. Would you want Phillips at £60m/£70m or Rice at £90m/£100m? Phillips in that scenario for me. If the price was around the same then Rice would be the better option. Ndidi is a cracking player, older but probably best out of the 3 right now. I bet the big boys sniff around him for £80m at end of the season.



I cant see any other outcome than Rice ending up at Chelsea ultimately if im honest. London boy. Cant see him staying at West Ham if no Champs Lge football arrives.

ndidi isnt English which is a big plus for Phillip's and rice.

Nationality isnt that important really is it? Hes a proven Premier League player. High quality.

it is. you need so many homegrown player in your matchday team/subs.

hence teams like man city having ageing scott carson as sub keeper on the bench

The thing is, the days of the super clubs cherry picking the best players from the rest of the league for peanuts are over, and realistically, there's only about 6 clubs in Europe who could afford Phillips and Raphinha (Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, PSG, Real Madrid and Barca). Sure, the likes of Newcastle have the cash, and Liverpool have champions league football, but Newcastle at the moment don't have CL football, and Liverpool don't have the cash, so the chances of keeping both are high at the moment as they're under contract and we don't need to sell.



Plus, you have to factor in whether any of the clubs who could attract them actually need them. Phillips is one of the few DMs in the game who can play the position on his own, which would make him very appealing to the likes of the above clubs because they want to play attacking football, but they'll need to pay £80m+ to get him.

Some really good points made here.

I think if Phillips does leave and has a choice he would go City as opposed to MU.

He is fast building up friendships with many of his England colleagues and whilst we would like to think he will stay with Leeds.

I do think that now he has the taste of international competitions he would want to test himself in European games.

It is down to Leeds to make that happen in the next year or two by buying quality.

The same applies to Raphina whose loyalty is with Leeds but his head might be turned mixing with the likes of Neymar etc.

Neither will want to be in relegation battles for the next 2 years.

It is. It means he’s less likely to move abroad and also ticks the box for having English players in the match day squad.

Absolutely. As I put above, Leeds need to show bit more ambition over the next year or so otherwise it’ll be difficult to retain both. It’s a sad reality of the Premier League unfortunately

To be fair, I don't think you can accuse Leeds of lacking ambition. They've spent £160m on first team players since promotion, improved the training ground, turned the academy into one of the best in the country, and put plans in place to to improve the stadium.

I do think we'll spend more in the summer if we stay up. This season is about consolidation

Sorry, yes poor turn of phrase from me there. Agree they've show good ambition so far, that needs to continue and ramp up slightly.

Bamford, Koch, Ayling definitely out

KP and Raphinha may play, but not confirmed

Harrison and Forshaw available.

.

Agree mate they are showing ambition especially with their infrastructure and wise investments at U23 level for sure.

Some real quality in there.

First team is still short of a quality midfielder and with that sorted I think we have no fears of going down.

Can't see Raphinha playing... he's in the starting 11 36 hours before we play. Think Bielsa will put him on the bench at best. Glad Forshaw available, gives us some cover in midfield at least.

You wont need Raphona to beat Southampton anyway