Matty Phillips, Tony Pulis and rare patience…

Sarah Winterburn

Had you told me on July 6 that a player bought by a Premier League club would spend January 2 claiming his seventh and eighth assists of the season, I would have immediately dismissed Swansea’s new signing Mike van der Hoorn, paused for a second over the name of Matt Phillips – after all, he was impressive in the final throes of QPR’s relegation season – but then placed a fat finger next to the name of Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Job done.

And yet here we sit looking at a list of the leading Premier League assist-makers of the season and only Kevin De Bruyne’s name sits above that of Phillips, the creative force behind West Brom’s unexpected rise into the top half of the table. And all for a little over £5m – 40% of a Ryan Mason or 16% of a Moussa Sissoko – in an age when buying players for a little over £5m is something of a lost art form.

Of the dozens upon dozens of signings made last summer by Premier League clubs, only a handful of players bought for an actual fee of under £10m would merit the word ‘success’, with Everton’s Idrissa Gueye the only real contender for Phillips’ crown, were we in the habit of giving out shiny things. That both players were bought from Championship clubs is no coincidence, though Gueye’s signing was a no-brainer in the immediate aftermath of a season when his tackling/interception statistics were only overshadowed by N’Golo Kante.

Phillips? Phillips was different. His relegation – the second of his career – was a year ago and his form had been steady but unremarkable in yet another season of turmoil at QPR, now in the Championship. But Tony Pulis was the one Premier League manager who had pursued him 12 months prior and went back when he sensed that the shifting horizons in west London would mean a lower price.

The delay meant that Phillips had been forgotten by much of the Premier League and his signing was seen as underwhelming by West Brom fans who craved more after a season which had ended with inertia. Pulis told them they were lucky to be safe once again but they did not feel lucky; they felt bored and dispirited, and a £5m signing from the Championship was no cure.

Nacer Chadli arrived for bigger money and with greater fanfare and Phillips – by all accounts, a quiet, unassuming character with brittle confidence – was close to anonymous in those first months of the season, working hard but producing little more than 6 or 7/10 performances, culminating in a place on the bench for a clash with Manchester City in late October.

“The biggest problem with Matt is that self-belief,” said Pulis a week later. “All we can do is give him that confidence. We had a chat with him last week. He has to start understanding that he’s a good player and he deserves to be where he is.”

Whatever was said, it worked. Since spending that one game on the bench, Phillips has scored four goals and claimed seven assists in ten games. Yes, many of those assists have come from set-pieces and yes, West Brom are particularly adept at converting those set-pieces, but Phillips at his best is the purest of pure wingers, blessed with pace, a willing engine and two quick, accurate feet. For a team which plays a low-possession game, that combination is priceless. It’s certainly worth more than £5m.

By the age of 25, Phillips had played under far too many managers under far too much pressure to find the time to whisper sweet things in his ear. Finally at West Brom, where everybody seems to be finally ready to have some fun, he has found a manager who would consider it one of his greatest triumphs to give Phillips no option but to believe that he really is quite good.

Sarah Winterburn