View: Forgotten attacker & 26y/o flop to go – Three players West Brom could look to offload
West Brom have secured promotion back to the Premier League and while many fans will be urging the club to bring in fresh faces to get prepared for life back in the top-flight, there are also some players who Albion could try and offload.
Slaven Bilic used fewer players than any other manager in the Championship as his side won promotion this season [25], which is a surprise given the strength in depth the Baggies boss had at his disposal [transfermarkt].
In the last few weeks of the campaign, Bilic went into matches with the likes of Matt Phillips, Callum Robinson, Kamil Grosicki and Charlie Austin on the bench, showing off the muscle that Albion had, especially in their attack.
But in order to free up funds and bring in the best possible players in the summer, Bilic and Luke Dowling could look to trim the fat on a squad that possesses a number of players who are unlikely to be up to scratch for Premier League football.
Here is a list of three players who West Brom could look to offload before next season starts:
Kenneth Zohore, 26 – striker
Zohore is the obvious one. The Danish striker started just five Championship fixtures this season despite being the most expensive signing that West Brom have made since dropping into their second tier when he was signed from Cardiff for £8million last summer. Zohore’s scored five goals in 20 appearances for Albion but two of those goals were in the FA Cup and two more were from the penalty spot. He’s been behind Austin and Hal Robson-Kanu in the striker pecking order and is the most obvious player to be binned off by Dowling this summer as he clearly doesn’t have what it takes to perform in the Premier League.
Ahmed Hegazi, 29 – defender
Hegazi has another two years left on his contract at West Brom and wasn’t awful in his debut season at The Hawthorns when Albion were relegated. But the Egypt international struggled for consistency this season in the Championship and there is already confirmed interest in him from Saudi Arabian club Al-Ittihad [KingFut]. Express & Star journalist Joseph Masi has previously said he has an inkling that Hegazi will be on the move this summer and that is a view shared by us.
Oliver Burke, 23 – winger
Hands up. Who forgot Burke was still a West Brom player? Honestly, we did until we looked at the squad list because Burke’s hardly done anything while on loan at Alaves this season, scoring just one goal in 31 La Liga appearances. Burke cost West Brom £15million when they signed him from RB Leipzig in 2017 but is likely to be worth a mere fraction of that now. He, like Hegazi, has two years left on his deal at The Hawthorns but someone could be willing to take a chance on the once-highly-rated Scotland international.
In other West Brom news, in an exclusive story by this site, the Baggies have opened talks over a new contract for this attacker.
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