Liverpool FC transfer news: Klopp personally pushed Phillips’ transfer to Stuttgart

Nat Phillips has claimed that Jurgen Klopp personally called Stuttgart to seal a loan move for the Englishman.

The 22-year-old centre-back has been in and around the first-team but hasn’t made a senior appearance for the side.

Phillips needed some first-team experience and had spoken to Klopp regarding a few loan offers.

The centre-back was speaking to Bild and added that the Liverpool manager wasn’t happy with the options presented and called Stuttgart’s sporting director Sven Mislintat (h/t Liverpool Echo):

“I told Jurgen about a few offers I had, Stuttgart was not one of them at that time.

“He was not enthusiastic about the options and I think he called Sven Mislintat shortly after our meeting.”

The English youngster added that Klopp was pleased when the deal with the Bundesliga 2 side was completed and sent him a message too:

“Klopp congratulated me on this move and he immediately wrote me a message on his phone: ‘Good club, great city, my birthplace, I wish you a great time.”

A good move for Phillips

It would have been a good move for Phillips to play at an English club, but sending him to a German side is the next best thing.

Klopp knows the German clubs well, and Phillips could help Stuttgart in their promotion push.

The centre-back needs to play games regularly to continue his development, and already faces a lot of competition at Liverpool for first-team spots.

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Sepp van den Berg and Ki-Jana Hoever will fight him for a spot in the team, and it will be interesting to see how he does at Stuttgart this season.