Exclusive: PSG interest in Man City transfer raid is down to unexpected issue with another deal, says expert

Paris Saint-Germain are interested in a potential loan signing for Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips, though a deal won’t necessarily be a priority for the club.

According to Jonathan Johnson, who spoke exclusively to CaughtOffside for his Daily Briefing column, Phillips being targeted by PSG can’t be ruled out now because of an issue that has come up with another deal.

PSG had hoped to sign Gabriel Moscardo from Corinthians this January, but the young Brazilian will now be moving in the summer instead, as an unexpected injury problem came up during his medical tests with the Ligue 1 giants.

Phillips could therefore be an alternative for PSG, but it seems unlikely the deal will be done unless it’s on favourable terms, and that might be an issue.

The England international is a fine player who could surely contribute something to PSG, but at the same time it remains to be seen if he’d necessarily go there when one issue for him at Man City has been his lack of playing time, which might not end up being much better in the French capital.

“There have been some mixed stories on this (Phillips links) and I’m not going to dismiss PSG’s interest out of hand, because their original idea was to be able to count on Moscardo over the second half of the season. Now that that issue has been uncovered and he needs time to recover from an operation, PSG do have to consider if they need more depth in midfield,” Johnson said.

“PSG have already committed quite a lot of money on those two Brazilian players, but they might decide they need a little bit more cover in midfield, so, if you’re looking at available midfielders at the moment, Phillips is one of the more obvious names. He’s not played much at Manchester City and so it’s been