West Ham now make the first move for long-term Newcastle target Kalvin Phillips - Sky Sports

Sky Sports are reporting this morning that West Ham have made their move to sign Kalvin Phillips from Manchester City.

Kalvin Phillips has been consistently linked with a move to Newcastle since the summer and it was widely believed that a move to the North East in January was all but done going into the transfer window.

We're now beyond the half-way mark in the winter window and Phillips remains at Manchester City thanks to their prohibitive fee structure for a loan deal. City want around £7million just for a club to loan Phillips which is putting off potential suitors, including Newcastle.

Newcastle now look set to miss out on their main winter target

The Magpies have very little headroom left with regards to FFP/PSR and a £7million loan fee is a step too far right now, but Sky Sports believes that West Ham are now at the negotiationg table and could steal a march on the other clubs interested in Phillips.

The Kalvin Phillips story is the poster boy of the anti-FFP narrative that Newcastle are spinning this winter.

It absolutely reeks of unfairness that a club with Newcastle's financial strength behind the scenes can't secure a loan deal for a player because his club want £7million. The PIF wouldn't even notice that money was missing, it's like a 20p piece falling out of our pocket for them. But the rules in place make it so a club's spending power is tied to their past not their future.

Are our owners playing 3D chess with the Premier League?

If FFP was based off the wealth of the club and its current backers rather than what business the club did in previous years, especially when it's a club operating under new ownership, then yes, okay, it still wouldn't be a level playing field, but it would make a lot more sense. There's not exactly parity now is there?

Now that Joelinton is likely to be out for the season, Newcastle may readjust their stance and push forward for Phillips by tapping into the summer transfer budget, but that would also weaken their narrative when it comes to calling out the current rules.

It's a tight-rope that our owners are walking right now, and we understand what they're doing and why (if indeed that is what they're doing), and of course they can't come out and tell us that's what we're doing and to be patient as then it unravels the whole thing. We just have to trust that they know what they're doing and hopefully one day we'll look back on this awful season and laugh.