Morecambe Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of Adam Phillips on a season-long loan deal from Premier League side Burnley.
The midfielder joins the Shrimps on-loan for the third time in his career, after previous loan spells in 2019/20 and 2020/21.
The latter saw the 23-year-old score 10 goals in 33 appearances in all competitions from September until his departure in January, making him the leading goal scorer at the club at the time.
Phillips was re-called by his parent club and loaned out to Sky Bet League One side Accrington Stanley, where he made 22 appearances, scoring two goals for the East Lancashire side throughout the remainder of the campaign.
“I’m absolutely delighted to be back,” Phillips said.
“Obviously I know the club really well, it’s going to be a great test this year in League One.
“I think the manager has put a great team together, it looks like he’s signed some strong players, there’ll be a lot of good games in the league, playing against the big teams which will be good for the fans, I’m looking forward to it.
“I knew from when I did leave that the team would push on and I knew they’d be there or thereabouts in the play-offs and I was really happy for them that they got promoted in the end.
“It’s been a long time coming, as soon as I got the phone call from the gaffer, I was just so excited and I wanted to come back immediately, I turned down a lot of other clubs to come here, Morecambe has a place in my heart and ever since I knew they were interested I was excited to come back.”
Manager Stephen Robinson is well aware Phillips’ previous successes at the Mazuma stadium and the Shrimps’ boss is excited to see what quality the Burnley loanee can bring to his squad.
“He [Phillips] is someone I’ve looked at for a wee while now, obviously he was very successful here last year in League Two,” Robinson said.
“He provides that quality, he’s got a range of passing and he scores goals, and we’re going to need goals to make sure we stay in this division.
“There’s real fighting competition for places, I don’t take anybody on loan that have to be guaranteed to play but sometimes when you have lots of quality in the building, then it raises everybody’s standards and Adam’s certainly one of those boys.”
Speaking of Phillips’ experience of playing in Sky Bet League One, Robinson believes his side can benefit from such experienced players throughout the campaign.
“You can’t have too many of those boys with us, there is a step up in standard and quality, especially at that top end of the pitch,” Robinson added.
“To get a midfielder that scores goals, we’ve already got Wildig, Alfie’s [McCalmont] got a record of goals and now Adam’s got a record of goals as well so it gives us plenty of choices, a headache for myself but that’s what you need at this level.”