Ashley Phillips talks about what he learned from Ryan Shawcross and how much he enjoyed his time at Stoke City as he is linked with transfer to Sheffield United
Ashley Phillips is hoping to make his mark in a fresh chapter at Tottenham Hotspur as he tries to build on a breakthrough year with Stoke City.
The 20-year-old centre-back emerged as one of the first names on the teamsheet at Stoke, making 39 starts and showing his potential under three managers as he helped eventually secure the club’s Championship status.
He has gone back to Spurs this summer under another new boss, Thomas Frank, and amid speculation linking him with another loan move, his first priority is to try to make his case as strong as possible that he is already ready for the Premier League.
“There’s a new chapter starting at Spurs and at the end of the day I want to be a Premier League footballer so it’s about making sure I have a good pre-season and seeing where that takes me,” he said in an excellent extended interview on the Every Step Along The Way podcast.
“Hopefully I can push for Premier League football this season but we’ll have to see. Hopefully that can come true. We’ll see what happens. I’m excited for the season that’s coming up.”
Stoke have already brought in a new centre-back this summer by signing Maksym Talovierov from Plymouth Argyle to join Ben Wilmot and Ben Gibson. There are loan suitors for Jaden Dixon while Freddie Anderson is already at Cork City and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Mark Robins tried to make sure he went post-deadline day with four players in that department. Bosun Lawal can also play at centre-half, as he did in a friendly against Brighton on Wednesday.
A return for Phillips - who has also been linked with Sheffield United on either a permanent or loan move - is unlikely but he won’t forget his time at the bet365 Stadium nor what he learned, particularly from coach Ryan Shawcross.
He said: “Stoke is a fantastic club with great fans and they’ll be up there very soon. I wish you all the best for the future.”
He added: “The coaching staff are brilliant. There’s obviously (James Rowberry), the assistant at Wales, and (Paul Nevin) was my England coach with the under-20s. They’ve got great CVs and it’s definitely a great back room staff to have at the club.
“(Robins) could give pointers on what a striker wants from a centre-back and what they find horrible. There is also Ryan Shawcross who was really, really good with me. He gave me some great advice after every game. When you’ve got someone who has made that many appearances in the Premier League, learning from him was really, really good for me.
“He taught me just to be a little bit nastier, not letting the striker think he’s having a good game, letting him know early on in a game, almost winding them up in a sense and knock them off their game a bit. If they’re getting frustrated it helps you.
“I think that side of my game has come on and especially in the Championship you need it. You are up against really physical strikers and if you can get in their head a little bit you can knock them off their game.”
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