{"id":209318,"date":"2025-06-24T03:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/209318\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T03:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:16:09","slug":"liverpool-confirm-transfer-as-star-who-virgil-van-dijk-sent-message-to-seals-deal-football-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/209318\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool confirm transfer as star who Virgil van Dijk sent message to seals deal | Football | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a parallel universe, Nat Phillips would be lining up alongside Virgil van Dijk<\/a> in the heart of Liverpool<\/a>\u2019s defence next season, having firmly established himself as a fan favourite at Anfield. Instead, the 28-year-old will play for West Bromwich Albion<\/a> in the Championship<\/a> after managing just eight appearances in four years for the Reds.<\/p>\n

Phillips has joined the Baggies on a three-year deal after an impressive loan stint with Derby County<\/a> in 2024\/25. He was a pivotal performer in the Rams avoiding relegation, with manager John Eustace publicly stating he wanted the centre-back on a permanent deal this summer. However, instead, he\u2019s headed to the Hawthorns for a fee of around \u00a33million, and said he wants to help the club win promotion next season.<\/p>\n

“I think everyone at the club and involved would like to see it competing for promotion and pushing for Premier League football,\u201d he said. “I’ve had a number of loans over the past few years and it’ll be really nice for me and my family to go somewhere and know we’re staying there to develop a relationship with the club and the fans.”<\/p>\n

Phillips joined the Liverpool<\/a> academy in 2016 and was handed his first senior deal three years later. However, it was during the 2020\/21 campaign, when Jurgen Klopp<\/a>\u2019s side was decimated by injuries as they struggled to defend their league title, that he seemingly broke through the ranks.<\/p>\n

Phillips made 20 of his eventual 29 Liverpool<\/a> career appearances that season. His form drew praise from fans and team-mates, earning him the nickname the \u2018Bolton Baresi\u2019 in reference to his hometown.<\/p>\n

After that campaign. Phillips revealed the heartening contact he had with Van Dijk, saying: \u201cVirgil has been amazing. He sent me a message at the end of the season saying he thought I\u2019d done really well in difficult circumstances, and that I should be proud of myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo him, that\u2019s a little thing to do, a small gesture, but for me to receive that sort of praise off the likes of him, it\u2019s huge and I won\u2019t lie, it put a massive smile on my face when I received the text.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Phillips promptly fell back down the pecking order that summer, and prior to joining Derby had loan stints at Stuttgart, Bournemouth, Celtic<\/a>, and Cardiff City<\/a>. He had a year left on his contract at Liverpool<\/a>, having signed a new deal back in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a parallel universe, Nat Phillips would be lining up alongside Virgil van Dijk in the heart of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,179,1127,66255,83735,79,16,15,1465],"class_list":{"0":"post-209318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-liverpool","10":"tag-liverpool-transfer-news","11":"tag-nat-phillips","12":"tag-nat-phillips-west-brom","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-virgil-van-dijk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}