In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe celebrates the news of midfielder Kalvin Phillips being selected in Gareth Southgate's latest England squad.

Howe is the author of two books on the club, 2015 hit ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.



I once referred to Kalvin Phillips in writing as the ‘Fifth Beatle’. It was meant in an affectionate way, because Kalvin Phillips became the outsider who didn’t miss his opportunity. In April 2015 when he made his Leeds United debut, Phillips arrived on the scene amidst the building giddiness surrounding the ‘Fab Four’ of Sam Byram, Charlie Taylor, Lewis Cook and Alex Mowatt. They were already established as first team players and were riding a wave of optimism as the poster boys of a more organic and wholesome Leeds United. Phillips would remain on the periphery of that youthful buoyancy, without a position or an identity to call his own, but as the forgotten man, as the ‘Fifth Beatle’, not for Phillips was there a lifetime of bitterness and regret skirting around the lower divisions, instead he took his chance when it came.

Through perseverance, commitment and an element of good fortune, Kalvin Phillips has prevailed, whilst almost anything attempted by Leeds United in the middle of the last decade crumbled into dust at the merest touch. Despite the good intentions, building a future based on youth during that period was half-baked, ill-timed and mis-managed. Gradually the lustre of the Fab Four disappeared with their piecemeal disintegration. Whether they wanted to leave or not, there was little professional or financial sense in them staying – for player or club – and once the player develops faster than the club he plays for, it will only end one way. Until you come across someone like Kalvin Phillips, and someone like Kalvin Phillips comes across someone like Marcelo Bielsa.

At the end of the 2017/18 season it is fair to say that Kalvin Phillips was standing at a career crossroads. 12 months later he was standing at a very different one. But before Marcelo Bielsa transformed his career Phillips didn’t demand a place in the team, and a succession of managers had struggled to make the most of his undoubted talents. Some fine goals and fine performances had decorated his three seasons in the first team, but Phillips had seen his former Academy teammates move on and few fans would have argued or begrudged him the opportunity, had Phillips done the same.

We might forever wonder what a player Ronaldo Vieira would have become under Bielsa, but that mild lament was swiftly tempered by the gradual and graceful unveiling of a genuine England international-class midfielder in the form of Kalvin Phillips. His raw materials harnessed, polished and honed into a formidable footballer who would finally stamp his authority on the team, the club and the division in a specialist position he would call his own, the development of Kalvin Phillips was a riot of dominance, ability and consistency. His progression was natural and elegant, like a caterpillar emerging from a chrysalis and flourishing into a butterfly, and this week’s confirmation of the end of that first stage of development came in the form of an England call-up. We all knew it would happen, it was just a matter of when.

And as we reacquaint ourselves with the many excesses of Premier League life, the validated redemption of Kalvin Phillips couldn’t have come at a better time. We swim in the same waters as petro-dollar investments, worldwide sponsorship and TV deals in global territories, but the official endorsement of Kalvin Phillips as one of the best players in England is a welcome reminder that a football club represents its community, and its roots begin and end there. Stripping back the layers of wealth, stardom and marketability you remember that football is about people, about relationships, about friends and family and about places.

Kalvin Phillips is a refreshing antidote to the extravagances which threaten to overshadow the commitment required, and dilute the merits of legitimate achievement in football. For Phillips it is all about family and the people he has grown up around. He still lives in the same area he always has and still walks amongst his people, not as some kind of aloof and unapproachable demigod, but as an equal, and someone who uses his status to do good things.

Leeds fans like nothing more than one of their own coming good; our last England international was Alan Smith, before him we enjoyed David Batty coming through the ranks, and before him Beeston’s-own Paul Madeley. There have been others of course, but when that journey to international recognition begins on the streets and parklands in the shadow of Elland Road, it means something more. It means that the player is representing his community, it means it could be one of us, and therefore Kalvin Phillips is living out our boyhood hopes and dreams and we are enjoying it vicariously through his achievements.

Not many young footballers make it to the very top, but in playing for Wortley Juniors and joining the Leeds United Academy aged 14, Kalvin Phillips has taken that journey for us. Those expectations for a Leeds lad in a Leeds shirt can weigh heavily, but the rewards are fantastic and that is what years of commitment and endeavour will bring.

Football isn’t as simple as plugging in a games console and controlling lives with the flick of a switch or the click of a mouse. It involves human sensitivities and it involves dedication. It involves personal decisions that can go right or wrong. In the summer of 2019 Kalvin Phillips made a decision, and one which included factors many of his predecessors didn’t have the luxury of. It might still have made professional or financial sense to leave Leeds United, but for once he could see a football club developing at the same rate that he was. Everything was aligned and everything made sense. His decision to stay loyal to Leeds United marked a line in the sand; for him, for the football club and for all of us.

Gareth Southgate is an honourable and humble man, and it is no accident that he has recognised those same qualities in Kalvin Phillips and fast-tracked him into his England squad on the back of a rapid progression built on foundations of modesty, staying grounded and straightforward hard work. It is why Southgate made a point of recognising the obvious glee and elementary joy radiating from Phillips when his England call-up was confirmed to him on the phone.

It meant more because it wasn’t expected, it was recognised for what it was and it was a shared achievement with his family. It wasn’t all about him. And that’s why Kalvin Phillips is so good for Leeds United right now in a dizzying football landscape that is changing rapidly. That’s why Leeds United fans are so proud of this personal achievement above all others. And that’s why good guys deserve to win more in football, because modern football needs more people like Kalvin Phillips.