Leeds United will try and reduce the fee required to sign Liverpool central defender Nat Phillips this summer, transfer insider Dean Jones told FootballFanCast.
The 26-year-old played only 232 minutes last campaign for the Merseyside outfit.
Is Nat Phillips signing for Leeds United?
According to a report from the Athletic, Leeds are interested in bringing Phillips to Elland Road ahead of the club's first season back in the Championship after a three-year top-flight spell.
The Whites have recently appointed former Norwich City and Borussia Mönchengladbach manager Daniel Farke, who held an interest in signing the former Bolton Wanderers youth player during his time managing the Canaries.
The report states that Liverpool are hoping to get a fee in the region of £10m for the defender who gained cult hero status among the terraces of Anfield following his performances throughout the side's tumultuous 2020/21 campaign.
The West Yorkshire side are in the market for a defender this summer amidst rumours that both Robin Koch and Diego Llorente are set to depart for Eintracht Frankfurt and Roma respectively following the club's relegation.
Leeds are set to face competition from Dutch Champions Feyenoord for the Englishman's signature however, and the Eredivisie side could have the advantage due to being able to offer Champions League football.
According to Jones, whilst the club are interested in the centre-back, they may try and knock the price down from £10m.
What did Jones say about the potential deal?
Speaking to FootballFanCast, Jones stated that whilst Phillips is a "decent" Championship-level signing, that may be his ceiling.
Jones said: "Nat Phillips is a decent signing for the Championship. That might be the ceiling of it, I'll be honest. I mean, we don't really know what levels he can reach here, there's not much evidence to make a judgment call on that. I think Nat Phillips will be cheap, about around 10 million pounds. I would still expect that Leeds would to try to knock that price down even if they wish to try and do a deal with it, see if there was any interest."
Would Nat Phillips be a smart signing for Leeds United?
Phillips has all the potential to be a really smart pickup by Leeds.
The defender has enjoyed a spell in the Championship before, spending the second half of the 2021/22 season on loan with eventual promotion-getters Bournemouth, making 17 appearances and recording a Whoscored average rating of 7.01, suggesting that the central defender can more than hold his own at this level of football.
The 26-year-old has received plenty of praise throughout his time at Liverpool despite his limited number of appearances, with manager Jurgen Klopp calling the player "unbelievable" and stating that his development as a player has been "absolutely insane".
This might finally be the summer where Phillips gets his move, with the Reds having previously blocked the exit path multiple times due to defensive injuries, curtailing potential moves to the likes of Bournemouth, Southampton, Galatasaray and Benfica.
Should Leeds manage to beat out the competition to sign the Liverpool man, they could have the perfect, ready-made Koch replacement as they try to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.