I thought that the Athletic was supposed to be serious journalism ? Clearly not, reading that quote. Unless they made a mistake in claiming that Phil Hay works for the Athletic ?
I just checked back to make sure I wasn't doing him a disservice as I used " 's instead of ' 's.
It turns out I went easy on him:-
“He’s never had a look-in at Brighton and if he went there this summer he wouldn’t know people in the dressing room.
“He might be thinking ‘I know Cooper, I’m good friends with Phillips…’ If Liverpool don’t buy him and Man City buy Koulibaly… if you drop past the top six clubs, which team is miles ahead of Leeds?”