Cardiff City Unable to Complete Move for Liverpool’s Phillips Due to Fee

Nat Phillips spent last season on loan at Cardiff and the club hoped to make the move permanent but Liverpool’s £8M asking price is beyond their means.

In retrospect, the 2020-21 season seams to have been as much curse as blessing for Liverpool centre half Nat Phillips, who was unexpectedly given the chance to play a key role in that injury-hit side’s late Champions League push.

That run raised Phillips’ profile beyond what anyone had expected heading into the season, but in the years since that raised profile—and with it a raised valuation for the player on Liverpool’s end—has only seemed to consistently price the now 27-year-old out of a permanent move.

Last season, Phillips headed out in loan to Cardiff City in January. It was his third loan following that 2020-21 season, and at the end of the season there were reports that Championship side Cardiff hoped to make the move permanent.

Now, though, reports from that end suggest Cardiff will look elsewhere for defensive reinforcements this summer as they have accepted that Liverpool’s £8M asking price is more than they can afford.

Given Phillips’ age and that he is unlikely to be sold on for a profit down the road, for a second division club like Cardiff that finished mid-table last season it’s indeed a steep fee and an asking price that one could imagine will again price Phillips out of a permanent move this summer.

Barring interest from a bottom-half Premier League side in the Bolton-born defender, it could be that we are once again looking at a summer of Phillips ending up either stuck with the Reds’ reserve team or heading off on loan again.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com