Kalvin Phillips completes £45m transfer from Leeds United to Manchester City with fond farewells

The 26-year-old has moved across the Pennines in a deal thought to be worth an initial £42m, with an extra £3m available in add ons.

Last season Marcelo Bielsa predicted when Phillips left Elland Road he would do so on good terms and both the midfielder and the club he has supported since childhood have done their best to ensure that is the case.

In a lengthy farewell statement posted on social media entitled "Dear Leeds United, my home and my team", Phillips showed his class as he wrote about how it had been his dream to "put on that white shirt and walk out on that pitch" ever since he saw his first game at Elland Road.

Phillips, who joined the job as a 14 year-old, making his first-team debut three years later, said it had been a "privilege" to do so.

There were also thanks for chairman Andrea Radrizzani, chief executive Angus Kinnear, director of football Victor Orta, the supporters and especially for "the best manager I have came across", who he simply referred to as "Marcelo".

"You gave me everything I needed to become the person I am today on and off the field," wrote Phillips.

The Leeds-born player was a box-to-box midfielder when Bielsa identified him as the man to play a deep-lying playmaker role for his new-look team and he has flourished ever since.

Seeing his emergence, Manchester City identified Leeds United's Phillips as the man to replace the retiring Fernandinho, who did a similar job for them. They moved quickly to sign him this summer.

Phillips would have made his England debut as a Championship midfielder in the spring of 2020, only for the Covid-19 pandemic to cause the cancellations of that round of internationals. Instead, he followed a successful first Premier League season as Leeds finished ninth by being one of the players of the European Championships, where England lost to Italy on penalties in the final. His international performances over 2020-21 as a whole saw him named as England's player of the year and underlined his ability to play at a higher level.

Phillips played as one of two defensive midfielders in that tournament, alongside Declan Rice. That could have been his destiny had he stayed at Leeds next season, with Bielsa's successor Jesse Marsch preferring more bodies in the centre of the park. But having led his boyhood team away from relegation at the end of a campaign where he was out for three months with an injured hamstring, he has decided to move on.

Despite having the difficult job of replacing the man he idolised, Phillips described Marsch an "an unbelievable manager... but... an even better person."

Not all home-grown Leeds players have been able to leave on good terms, and reported interest from Manchester United opened the door for Phillips to leave in a similarly unsatisfactory way but he did not walk through it, and as soon as their city rivals came in offering Champions League football, he had an option few Whites supporters will begrudge him taking at this stage of his career.

The club was certainly keen to reciprocate the warm words from a player who was always a good ambassador for them at off-the-field events.

"No words can thank Kalvin enough for his efforts whilst at the club and we wish him nothing but success in the future," said a Leeds statement.

"Kalvin inspired so many people in the city, not only for what he did on the pitch, but also for the work he did in the local community.

"He will always be a champion in Leeds, remembered for playing his part in getting the club back to where it belongs and will always be welcome at Elland Road."

Of the money Leeds receive, £5m will go straight back to City for 18-year-old midfielder Darko Gyabi, who has joined on a four-year contract.Gyabi, who started in Millwall's academy and was capped by England at under-15, -16 and -18 level, is seen as a developmental player and Marc Roca, signed from Bayern Munich last month, as more of a back-up initially. Summer signing Brenden Aaronson is a more advanced midfielder.

It has been reported RB Leipzig are willing to let Tyler Adams leave on loan so the United States midfielder can play more football in a World Cup year. Adams has been a bit-part player in Germany, though it has not stopped him playing in eight of his country's 10 internationals this year, three as captain.

Marsch handed the now-23-year-old his senior debut at New York Red Bulls, and worked with him in Leipzig in his ill-fated spell there last season.

Salzburg's Mohammed Camara - another who like Adams, Aaronson and right-back recruit Rasmus Kristensen has previously worked with Marsch - has also been linked as a potential Phillips replacement. A move for Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Winks - offered to Leeds in January - has also been mooted, though he is less of an out-and-out holding midfielder