Revealed: The £40,000-a-week Leeds stars key to Phillips failing to agree new deal

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Published on:

17 Jul 2019, 1:30 am

EXCLUSIVE By Wayne Veysey and Pete O'Rourke

Kalvin Phillips has failed to agree a new Leeds United deal because he has not been offered a package that would catapult him into the club's top tier of earners alongside £40,000-a-week pair Kiko Casilla and Patrick Bamford, Football Insider can reveal.

Football Insider broke the news last week that the midfielder, 23, had knocked back Leeds' opening offer following initial talks over a long-term contract extension.

The two parties are still in negotiations over a deal and there is hope that an agreement can be thrashed out for Phillips to remain at his hometown club beyond next month.

For that to happen, Phillips wants a major pay hike that would lift him into the same bracket as Casilla and Bamford.

A Leeds source has told Football Insider the 32-year-old goalkeeper signed from Real Madrid in January, and the striker recruited for £7million from Middlesbrough last summer are both on packages worth £40,000-a-week.

Leeds' opening offer for Phillips, currently on around £10,000-a-week, was well short of that sum.

This has opened the door to the string of Premier League clubs keen to sign him this summer and take advantage of his contract situation, with his current agreement expiring in 2021.

Football Insider revealed last month that Leeds have knocked back an approach already for Phillips from Villa, while there is also interest from Wolves and Bournemouth, as well as Premier League big guns Tottenham.

Phillips has told friends he wants to remain at his boyhood club, and Marcelo Bielsa has made it clear behind the scenes that he regards the midfielder as an integral member of the team who he does not want to lose.

In other Leeds United news, it can be REVEALED that the club have set their sights on three new signings.

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