A few days ago, Manchester City The Athletic correspondent Sam Lee/@SamLee stated City midfielder Kalvin Philips had a ’50/50′ chance of staying at the club despite only signing for the Blues last summer. Philips, 27 has struggled for fitness and has only appeared for 165′ minutes across all competitions for the Premier League champions since being bought for £42 million from Leeds United. According to Sky Sports, West Ham lodged a bid of up to £50 million for Philips the day before the end of the January transfer window, which was rejected by City.
If Philips is unable to stay fit and the demands of playing for Pep Guardiola prove too much, I would love to see City use their buyback option and purchase 19-year-old Belgian midfielder Romeo Lavia from Southampton after selling him to the Saints for just £14 million last summer. Lavia has plenty of room to grow and would be the understudy to arguably the best defensive midfielder in world football, Rodri. Lavia, having been around the first team setup at City for a few months before his departure, would already be familiar with Guardiola’s style and is cultured in possession.
The Belgian is press-resistant, as well as possessing a fantastic vision for playing progressive passes through to creative outlets in the final third.
With Philips seemingly not robust enough for this City side, if the club decides to cut their losses with the Yorkshireman this summer, Lavia’s £40 million buyback clause is the ideal solution for the club and could make City’s process in replacing world-class Rodri when the time comes that much easier.