David Prutton has stated that Kalvin Phillips’ new deal at Leeds United is great news for the club, with the former Elland Road favourite tipping his hat to the player’s improvement over the last 12 months.

Leeds secured Phillips’ long-term future on Monday evening, with the 23-year-old signing a new five-year deal that will run until the summer of 2024.

It comes off the back of a period of speculation regarding Phillips’ future, with Leeds confirming they knocked back multiple Premier League approaches in the transfer window gone by.

Phillips has undergone a major transformation under the management of Marcelo Bielsa, moving from an inconsistent box-to-box midfielder, to the Championship’s best anchor.

And, Prutton believes this new deal is testament to that improvement.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Prutton told Football League World in an exclusive interview with Chief Editor, Sam Rourke. “I think it is testament to what he has done as a player and a person.  

“He was in the bracket of going for vast amounts of money, and, yes, football is awash with it, but if you’d said in the last pre-season that he’d be a £25m player, you’d be thinking ‘Christ, that’s a little bit optimistic’.  

“But, he’s proved himself to be a very capable performer at this level, and you feel that he understands what Leeds have done for him and what Marcelo Bielsa has done for him.”

 

The new deal is believed to put Phillips amongst Leeds’ highest earners at Elland Road, underlining his new-found impact at LS11.

For Prutton, the deal had to be right financially for both sides, he continued: “Don’t get me wrong, he won’t have gone cap in hand to Leeds and said ‘Thanks Governor’.  

“I don’t want to take anything away from a homegrown player who has committed his future to the club that brought him through, but it has got to make financial sense at both ends.

“He’s got to make sure that he maximises his earning potential.”

Ultimately, Phillips’ major improvement has come following Bielsa’s arrival at Leeds last summer, with the Argentine seeing something in the academy graduate that his previous six Elland Road coaches hadn’t before.

For Prutton, the 64-year-old will have played a part in Phillips’ decision to stay.

He concluded: “Going in and seeing Bielsa on a daily basis (will have played a part). He’s improved him no-end.

“I think it’s a nice story all-round for Leeds, in the way they bring players through.”