Exclusive: Kevin Phillips makes West Brom transfer claim as he predicts football cash crisis
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips has claimed that West Brom should prioritise signing a new striker once the transfer window re-opens.
Hal Robson-Kanu is Albion’s top-scoring striker this season with the Welsh forward bagging 10 goals in the Championship. Charlie Austin follows with nine and Kenneth Zohore has hit the back of the net five times.
Although no team has scored more goals than the Baggies in the Championship this season, Phillips believes that adding a more prolific striker should be Slaven Bilic’s priority as he predicts that a cash crisis will hit football that might limit his former club’s spending capabilities.
“You need to prioritise, especially now with the financial side of it as they might not have the same amount of money to spend,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“You’ve got to look at the areas where you’re really desperate to sign and West Brom’s striker area is one of their priorities.”
Phillips makes a good point because even if they win promotion to the Premier League, West Brom might not be blessed with the amount of cash that teams usually win upon promotion due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on football.
If that is the case then the Baggies will have to spend quite shrewdly and that means no signing players to strengthen positions that don’t need strengthening.
Albion might need to replace some of the players whose contracts are expiring. Jonathan Bond, Ali Al-Habsi, Chris Brunt and Gareth Barry could all leave once the season is over.
That suggests that as well as a new striker, Bilic might need to reinforce his central midfield options, find a new back-up goalkeeper and replace loanees like Grady Diangana and Callum Robinson if they’re not snapped up once their loan deals finish.
In other West Brom news, Albion are to be handed a potentially huge boost in their bid to sign Matheus Pereira permanently.
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