Aston Villa boss Dean Smith has confirmed how he was priced out of a move for Leeds United and England star Kalvin Phillips.
The head coach had the 24-year-old at the top of last summer's wish-list but soon learned that Leeds demanded top-dollar for their star midfielder.
Phillips has since gone onto become an England starter under Gareth Southgate and, upon clinching promotion with his boyhood club last year, openly admitted how he came close to moving to Villa Park.
"Aston Villa had been in touch and they’d gone into the Premier League so I knew I could play in the Premier League just like that," Phillips told The Athletic back in July. "And us losing in the play-offs killed me a bit. It was hard to take.
"To be honest, I was in a situation where I didn’t know what to do. I was basically on the verge of leaving. I was on the verge of saying I wanted to leave, but at the same time I didn’t want to say it."
Leeds, though, under director of football Victor Orta demanded as much as £30 million for Phillips last summer with Villa walking away from a deal at that price. In the end, Smith - under the guidance of then-sporting director Jesus Garcia Pitarch - signed two defensive midfielders for £26 million, Douglas Luiz and Marvelous Nakamba.
Phillips controversially said he would have been "getting relegated with Aston Villa instead" during the post-promotion celebrations with Smith's side ingrained in a relegation battle.
Villa, of course, survived by a single point and have started this season as the division's most in-form team having won four from their opening four Premier League matches.
As for Phillips, the midfielder has been ruled out of Friday's match with a shoulder injury and, when asked about transfer discussions last summer, Smith expressed how there was interest.
"He was on a list of players that we were interested in," he explained. "As far as I was aware it never got past initial talks stage with the price tag they wanted and rightly so if you look at their season last year and what they're going now."
Phillips has been an ever-present under Marcelo Bielsa and, knowing he's out of Friday's clash, Smith added: "Yeah (it's a boost), similar to Vardy not being in the Leicester team. He's been pivotal to the way they play and has rightly earned his way into the England team as well."
