West Ham wanted to recreate Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips' England partnership, but were beaten to Phillips by Manchester City, David Moyes has revealed. And it wasn't just that City won the race for the Leeds midfielder, but Moyes says West Ham bid more for Phillips than the fee City ended up paying.
City agreed a £42m deal for Phillips, with another £3m in add-ons taking the total transfer up to a possible £45m. He may have been available for cheaper still, had Leeds been relegated last season and a relegation release clause was activated.
Still, City will feel that £42m for an England international is good business, especially having recouped £45m for Gabriel Jesus and almost £50m for Raheem Sterling this summer, plus over £25m in academy sales.
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Now Moyes has claimed that West Ham actually bid more for Phillips in January, City will feel even better about their business, having taken advantage of the extra six months — plus the fact that Phillips wanted to join the Blues — to seal a better deal.
Speaking to the Mail, Moyes said: "We bid more than that. We’re trying to be competitive with the big teams. If we can’t, we have to find another way of keeping up with them."
City travel to West Ham on the opening day of the new Premier League season, and Moyes also made a prediction over how Erling Haaland would fit in at City, in reference to retired Hammers legend Mark Noble's comment that he'll be sat on a beach next season while his former teammates will be trying to defend against Haaland.
Moyes said: "It feels as if we only played City two weeks ago. We went 2-0 up but drew 2-2. Here we go again.
"The problem is Haaland has a team around him, 10 other players and one of the world’s best managers on the touchline. He’ll get over it quite quickly — being new to the English game — because he’s at a top football club."
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