Kalvin Phillips ended up reuniting with his good friend Leif Davis at Ipswich Town, but could things have been different had Leeds United also been promoted to the Premier League? Here’s part two of Stuart Watson’s chat with the midfielder...
As Kalvin Phillips’ loan spell at West Ham unravelled, four teams were slogging it out for the two Championship automatic promotion spots.
The 28-year-old, conscious that he was probably going to have to start again at a feelgood, lower end Premier League club in 2024/25, kept close tabs on two of those teams in particular.
Leeds United, obviously. The club he joined at the age of 10 and became a fans’ favourite at when playing at the heart of a Marcelo Bielsa side that won the second-tier before bloodying several noses at the top table.
And, unbeknownst to most, Ipswich Town. Why? This, after all, was a club that, three years earlier, had just finished ninth in League One when he played in the European Championship Final. Because one of his former team-mates and best friends played there – Leif Davis.
“Leify came to Leeds from Morecambe when he was around 17/18 and he was this young lad who was funny and quite outgoing,” says Phillips, with a warm smile.
“I was a pro in the team, playing every week, but I still felt like a little kid compared to the senior pros, so I would hang around with all the younger lads coming through. Me and Leif just grew to like each other. When he left, we carried on speaking on the phone every week.”
Leeds losing 4-0 at QPR on April 26 proved to be a pivotal moment in the promotion race. Ipswich went on to secure second spot behind Leicester, while Daniel Farke’s men had to make do with third on 90 points. After seeing off Norwich over two legs, the Yorkshire giants suffered Play-Off Final heartbreak at Wembley, losing 1-0 to Southampton.
“I went to that game and was devastated they didn't go up,” reveals Phillips.
Which begs the question, might he be back at Elland Road had Leeds won that game?
“Obviously I wanted Leeds to get promoted. It’s a club very close to my heart,” he admits.
“But also I have a really good friend who was playing for Ipswich. I spoke to Leif at least once a week throughout last season, I used to watch his games and I just loved watching a good football team do well.
“When Ipswich went up, I was delighted for him. He’s a lovely kid and he deserves it after the route he’s taken.
“When I was at Leeds I always knew he was going to be a top player. Him leaving Leeds might have been disappointing for him at the time, but it’s progressed his career so much. You can see how the manager here has given him the belief and confidence to just perform every week.”
Davis made a handful of appearances for Leeds between 2018 and 2021, with Junior Firpo ahead of him in the left-back pecking order. A season on loan at promotion-pushing Championship club Bournemouth followed, where again game time was limited, before the big decision was made to drop down to League One to sign permanently for ambitious Ipswich for a £1.2m fee.
“You could see that the quality was there,” says Phillips. “If he was maybe two or three years older then he would have been a mainstay in that Leeds team. But football’s football and sometimes you have to leave places and friends that you like to go and experience new things and better your career.
“Leif did exactly that. He went through some tough moments at Bournemouth first, but as soon as he got to Ipswich he built that confidence.
“Me seeing Leif playing regularly and doing well here ignited something in me. I realised I wanted to feel a more important part of a team again. I wanted to be relied on every week, to be fit, to be healthy, to be playing, to get results, to defend results.
“Even if Leeds had been promoted and Ipswich had maybe come up in the play-offs then it still would have been a very close call as to where I’d have gone because I just love the story of Ipswich.
“The more I looked into the team and the manager and the club’s rebuild the more I liked. I’d played against a few of the boys here and I just felt like they were good people. I could tell what type of team it would be if I did come here. I just needed a team that was together and to be at a place where I’d enjoy coming in every single day. I wanted to play every week in a team of fighters that work really hard. It just felt like Ipswich fitted me to a tee and I still feel that way."
He adds: “During the period where a few teams were showing interest, Leif was giving me a FaceTime every other day. I’d look at my phone and think, ‘oh, it’s Leif again, he’s going to ask me if I’ve spoken to the manager yet’. It was a funny time, but it all worked out in the end.”
In part one of this interview, Phillips stressed he has not given up hope of adding to his 31 England caps following a year-long absence from the squad.
But what of his mate Davis? With the Three Lions currently short of left-back options, is it only a matter of time before the Geordie assist machine gets the call?
“I was surprised he wasn’t called up to the last squad,” to be honest, says Phillips.
“Against Tottenham I thought he was very good. He’s definitely one of the best in the league.
“I just feel like there’s space for a natural attacking left-back, which is probably the way that (Thomas) Tuchel will want to play.
“I feel like I’m expecting the call-up for Leif more than he is expecting it. I’ve not really said it to him much, because I don’t want to make him feel pressurised, but I do feel like his time is going to come and when it comes I just want him to be able to grab it with both hands.”
A big part of the reason that Kieran McKenna brought Phillips to Portman Road was because of the fact he has experienced what it takes to stay in the Premier League as a newly-promoted club.
Asked what Ipswich can take from the way Leeds finished ninth in 2020/21, the 28-year-old says: “The big lesson was about just sticking to the game plan and what the manager (Marcelo Bielsa) wanted us to do.
“Similar to Ipswich, we lost to Liverpool in the first game of that season but showed quite a good picture of ourselves. I think how we wanted to play caught a lot of people by surprise. I feel like it’s the same with Ipswich and the way we play out and the high intensity we have pressing.
“Later on in the season there were periods where we went without a win for a few games, but we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were in the Premier League for a reason and that reason was because we are good at playing football. That has to be our attitude here too. I feel like in this Premier League, bar the top two or three, anybody can beat anybody.”
Town certainly proved that last time out when securing their first league win of the season when very few expected it – 2-1 at Tottenham.
Phillips, who was suspended for that game, now comes back into the picture for Sunday’s eagerly-anticipated clash with Manchester United at Portman Road.
“As a team we know we could have more points on the board,” he said. “That first win could have come against Fulham and it could have come against Aston Villa.
“Brentford away, I thought we were very unlucky to not come out with a point. Then we had Leicester. I thought we were comfortably winning that game before a couple of dubious decisions go against us.
“So to go to Tottenham and get a win against such a big team at an unbelievable stadium shows the characters that we are and the type of progress we’re making as a team.
“Going into it, we knew they ran more than us, we knew that they were more intense than us, we knew their high pressure in our defensive third would be big, we knew they had some of the best players in the league. But I don’t think they caused us as many problems as we thought they would.
“When a team believes in what they are doing as much as we do, then the only way forwards is up. We’re going to continue to grow, continue to get better and continue to be more confident in ourselves. Nobody expects us to go to certain places and win or to put teams under a lot of pressure, but that’s what we plan to do.”
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