Rumours around Kalvin Phillips' future at Leeds United continue to swirl and on Sunday there were reports about Aston Villa being at the front of the queue to sign the midfielder in the summer. The Times claimed that Villa are ready to make a £60million bid for the England international and they have also named one of the players Leeds are said to be interested in as a replacement for their homegrown star.
The player in question is Swansea City's Flynn Downes. The Swans picked up the 23-year-old midfielder from Ipswich Town last summer for a fee of only £1.5million and he has starred in Russell Martin's midfield, making 31 appearances, primarily on the right side of a deep midfield two in a 3-4-2-1 formation.
The report mentions that the Whites see Downes as a potential replacement for Phillips but given that the two players are very different in profile, this would seem surprising. The former Ipswich man could fit nicely into the midfield two that Jesse Marsch wants to play in his 4-2-2-2 formation, but he is much closer in play-style to Adam Forshaw or Mateusz Klich.
