"£70-80m - Sunderland: Punchy Kevin Phillips price-tag claim made | OneFootball

Kevin Phillips was one of the deadliest strikers around at the turn of the century, but how much might he have been worth in today's market?

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

As the 1990s became the 2000s, there was no striker in the Premier League who was finding the back of the net more than Sunderland's Kevin Phillips.

Phillips' 30 top-flight goals in the 99/00 campaign crowned him as the Premier League's top scorer that year, as he lit up the Stadium of Light on almost every occasion.

However, when the time came for the Black Cats to move on from Phillips, they would sell him to Southampton for just £3m.

Had the Wearsiders decided to cash in on the England international off the back of his 99/00 season, the club would undoubtedly have received a fee that would've been considerably higher than what they eventually sold him for.

Which begs the question, if Phillips had been scoring 30 Premier League goals in today's game, how much might he have been worth? Football League World investigates...

Sunderland fan pundit's view on "£70-80m" Phillips

With eye-watering transfer fees becoming the norm in today's market, pondering just how much a historical star would've been worth in football's current financial climate is always an interesting debate.

This is exactly what FLW put to our Sunderland fan pundit, Eddy Bamber, regarding one of the Black Cats' - and indeed the Premier League's - greatest ever strikers, Phillips.

Bamber said: "It's a tough question that! I think the reason why that question is quite a hard one to answer is because we never saw a prime Phillips get sold.

"There were rumours at the time of his £20m valuations, but we didn't actually see him get sold until the momentum had dropped at Sunderland, and he went to Southampton for a much lower fee than what he could've even a year previously.

"But, a player who's going to score 30 goals in the Premier League, in today's money? I mean, we sold Darren Bent who scored 24 goals in the 09/10 season for £24m.

"So, Phillips scoring 30, £70-80m maybe? And that might even be conservative. Yeah, I'd say £70-80m."

Phillips was one of Premier League's best strikers during Sunderland spell

Looking through the modern day lense, it would perhaps be hard to believe for a certain generation that the Premier League's top goalscorer, with 30 goals in 36 appearances in 99/00, would be playing for Sunderland.

But back in those times, Phillips' partnership with another Wearside and footballing icon, Niall Quinn, the Black Cats had one of the most fearsome and feared strike pairings around.

It was Phillips who would be the star of Sunderland's show, however, with his remarkable 99/00 goal return making a mockery of some of the greatest strikers to ever put on a pair of boots.

Alan Shearer (23), Dwight Yorke (20), Andy Cole (19), Thierry Henry (17), Paolo Di Canio (16) and Quinn (14) all fell comfortably short of matching the England international's goals that season. Needless to say, he also won the Premier League player of the season award that year too.

Being just 26 during this campaign, and having scored 23 and 29 league goals in the two seasons prior, Phillips was the deadliest striker in the Premier League right in the prime of his career.

Compare that to the £100m+ claims surrounding Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins over the summer, a striker who is 28 and who's best Premier League scoring season was his 19 goals last term, and perhaps Bamber's £70-80m Phillips figure is perhaps very conservative.

A striker who could score every single kind of goal, Phillips truly was one of the best centre-forwards of his day during his time at the Stadium of Light, and would unquestionably have been one of the most sought-after players in world football had he been plying his trade in today's game.