Exclusive: Fabrizio Romano responds to Newcastle United transfer links with England international

Manchester City midfielder and rumoured Newcastle United transfer target Kalvin Phillips could have a realistic chance of moving in this January’s transfer window, according to Fabrizio Romano in his exclusive column for the Daily Briefing.

Phillips has struggled for playing time since moving from Leeds United to Man City last season, despite previously looking such an impressive player during his time at Elland Road, whilst also continuing to play fairly regularly for the England national team.

According to Romano, it now looks like Phillips will consider his future this winter after a lack of playing time at the Etihad Stadium, as he wants to be playing more at club level in order to keep his place in Gareth Southgate’s squad.

However, Romano played down links with Newcastle, insisting that the Magpies still haven’t made any final decisions on January targets due to being keen to wait and see what happens with their progress in the Champions League first.

“Kalvin Phillips spoke about his future earlier this week, and while he’s been super professional and never causing any problems, we know there is a technical problem there. Phillips needs to play. He can’t stay on the bench because he wants to be an important player for his club, and also for England,” Romano said.

“At Manchester City, he’s almost never playing, so even though in the summer he rejected some possibilities to leave because he wanted to stay and fight for his place at City, now it looks very likely, according to sources on both the player and club side, that Phillips will leave in January.

Let’s see which clubs end up being in the race, and let’s see if it’s a loan deal or a permanent deal – at the moment there is nothing concrete, but the direction seems