Reliable journalist shares West Brom stance on signing Joe Hart amid speculation
West Brom would be interested in signing Joe Hart on a free transfer this summer if he lowered his wage demands, according to Joseph Masi.
Writing on the Express & Star website, the journalist reported that the fact that Hart, 33, has left Burnley and is available for free does appeal to the Baggies.
However the former England No 1’s wage demands are too high as they stand and he would have to lower them if he wanted to head to The Hawthorns this summer.
This comes after The Sun reported that Slaven Bilic wants to add to his goalkeeper options this summer and has identified Swansea’s Steven-Andreas Benda, Wigan’s David Marshall and free agent Hart as potential targets.
Ali Al-Habsi has left the Baggies while Jonathan Bond’s contract situation is yet to be clarified, leaving Sam Johnstone and Alex Palmer as Bilic’s only goalkeepers in the senior set-up.
Hart has bags of experience but his career has been on a rapid decline ever since his horrific performance against Iceland at Euro 2016.
Since then, he has had poor spells at Torino, West Ham and Burnley but a return to the Midlands for the Shrewsbury-born goalkeeper might be what he needs to revive his form.
Still, we don’t think Bilic needs to be allocating too much of his wage budget on someone who might end up being a back-up goalkeeper.
There are parts of Johnstone’s game that need improving but we don’t see it too necessary to replace him as the first-choice goalkeeper when there are other areas of the squad that need to be upgraded first this summer.
In other West Brom news, Albion are set to bid £7.2million for this international attacker.
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