I think it's a mixture of two things. I think yes, he wants a bit more cash, but I also think he wants to move to a club in which he is the undisputed goalscorer, the big man who you rely on to score. That was fine and dandy last year, but with the emergence of Welbeck and Gyan as major contenders for striking spots he's no longer the undisputed main striker. At Villa he will be, and that's a comfort to him.
Big Emile will not be amused GodCubed!
I disagree to be honest.. maybe he knows Sunderland are just a flash in the pan this season when it comes to league positioning and he knows that Aston Villa are usually challenging for Europe and Top 4.
I'm sure he would have spoken to Villa somehow before hand hence him handing in the Transfer Request before even being given permission to speak to them. His agent must have held talks, all be it illegally.
I'm sure he has his reasons, and I strongly doubt they are all down to money.
of course its about the money why else would he leave in jan and not at the end of the season.... What are villa going to achieve this season?
Maybe he wants to join Villa and is joining now to make sure he can keep them up? If he waits til the summer they may have gone down!
Also Sunderland will get far more for him now than in 6 months time.
to be fair, phillips was 30 and wanted to prolong his premiership career and sunderland had just finished bottom of the league and had no money forcing them to sell to survivePhillips can hardly talk, he left Sunderland all them years ago,Sunderland are a selling club, they will move on and buy the next guy to make a huge profit on.