Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin have stepped away from interest in signing Liverpool’s Nat Phillips.
That’s according to a report in Bild today. They claim that the German capital side had a strong interest in signing Phillips on-loan during the January transfer window.
Having had a positive experience when dealing with Liverpool in the past, Hertha were said to be keen on taking advantage of another potential loan.
However, injury to Ibrahima Konate meant that Jurgen Klopp had to put an end to any negotiations over Phillips. He stayed at Anfield, where he’s played just 24 minutes since.
It’s expected that the 25-year-old will once again be on the market at the end of the season. But according to Bild, Hertha have now ruled out another move for Phillips. Instead, the Berliners will reportedly rely on 19-year-old Linus Gechter upon his return from Eintracht Braunschweig.
No more excuses on Phillips front
So, another door shuts for the perennially unlucky Phillips. Over the past season he has now seen promising moves to Benfica and Hertha Berlin break down.
If he was playing even semi-regularly at Liverpool, that would be worth it. But he’s barely featuring at all. With Joe Gomez now injured, Phillips is back up to fourth-choice in the Reds squad right now.
Unless either Joel Matip or Konate get injured again though, he’s not going to see any game time.
As he turns twenty-six later on this month, it really must be time for Big Nat to move on in the summer. His dwindling minutes on the pitch probably means that Liverpool will have to climb down from their £10m valuation of the centre-back.
Had they sold him two years ago, fresh off the back of an excellent stint in the team, they should have easily been able to fetch that. With former Stuttgart sporting director Sven Mislintat calling him ‘superb,’ he seemed prime for a nuce move. Instead, it seems that the Reds held out for more like £15m to sell the former Bolton man.
At the time, you could argue that that was a fair valuation. But now, with his career stagnating, it seems like a poor decision not to sell Phillips while his stock was highest. With Liverpool targeting another centre-back there should be no excuse to block any kind of move to sign Nat this summer.