Report: If football doesn’t resume until autumn, West Brom could wave goodbye to some players
West Brom would be willing to let players whose contracts expire in June leave the club if football is unable to resume until the autumn, according to The Athletic.
As it stands, the Baggies have a number of players whose deals end in the summer with Chris Brunt, Gareth Barry, Lee Peltier, Ali Al-Habsi and Jonathan Bond among them. Kyle Edwards’ deal also expires but Albion have the option to extend his by a further 12 months.
Clubs are still waiting for definitive news on when the season will be able to resume although there have been reported plans for clubs to go back to training in May with the season kicking off again in mid-June.
While that plan is in place, clubs like West Brom are unlikely to act on players whose contracts expire but if a “clear ruling” is made the matches won’t be on again until September of later, chief executive Mark Jenkins will be able to plan better and may release players going out of contract.
The Athletic reports that if this happened then Albion would also talk more seriously about player wage deferrals and potential furloughing of non-playing staff members.
We hope it does not resort to that as West Brom have, so far, been able to pay their players and non-playing staff the same amount as when football was on.
In other West Brom news, Martin Tyler has shared what he likes about The Hawthorns.