Leeds heading for disaster on "wonderful" £38k-p/w "talent", Marsch would be fuming - opinion

Leeds United have had a rather eventful second season back in the Premier League, seeing Jesse Marsch replace Marcelo Bielsa in the Elland Road dugout, as well as spending most of the campaign trying to avoid the relegation zone.

Now that Marsch will have the upcoming summer transfer window to make some changes to his squad ahead of 2022/23, it seems as though the 48-year-old may have a challenge on his hands keeping hold of one of his key players.

According to a recent report from The Telegraph, Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte is a big fan of Kalvin Phillips, who is apparently on Fabio Paratici’s list of transfer targets for the north London club ahead of the summer window.

As a product of the Yorkshire club’s youth system, the Englishman has gone on to make a total of 228 appearances for the Whites across all competitions. In those appearances, the £38k-per-week midfielder has chipped in with 14 goals and provided 13 assists along the way.

To highlight how important Phillips is to the team, out of the 14 league games that the 26-year-old missed between December and March with a hamstring injury, Leeds ended up losing 10 of them.

On the flip side, out of the 14 league games that Phillips has played in, Leeds have only lost three, showing that they are a better defensive unit when he’s in the side.

Labelled as a “wonderful talent” by Michael Brown, the England international has won 29 tackles this season, with only four other players registering more.

Taking all of this into account, it’s safe to say that the Leeds boss would be fuming if the club were to sell the midfield maestro this summer, especially to another Premier League side.

Moving forward, Marsch and the rest of the hierarchy at Elland Road should be