‘He is the one’ – Bilic confirms he wants WBA to sign ex-PL attacker who scored twice this week
Slaven Bilic has confirmed that he wants to see CSKA Moscow attacker Nikola Vlasic join him at West Brom this summer.
Vlasic, 22, has started to 2020/21 Russian Premier Liga in fine form by scoring two goals in two appearances this week against Zenit St Petersburg and Rubin Kazan.
West Brom have only signed Matheus Pereira this summer and it seems Bilic wants to continue bolstering his attack by signing the Croatia international from CSKA having already discussed a move for him with his coaching staff.
When asked by Index HR [YouTube, 4m 41s] if he wanted Vlasic during his time in charge at West Ham, Bilic said: “I would like to bring him in even now.
Bilic added: “We talked about Vlasic. Dejo (Racunia), Danilo (Butorovic) and I. I would be happiest if I could call and buy Nikola.”
The interviewer then said that CSKA Moscow would probably want a lot of money for Vlasic. Bilic said: “Of course. And Zenit reportedly offers serious money. Napoli too.
“When you ask me who I would like to bring, he is the one.”
Vlasic has tried his hand in the Premier League in recent years after he was signed by Everton from Hajduk Split for £10million in 2017.
However, the Croatian ace played just 12 times in the Premier League for Everton before he joined CKSA Moscow on a loan deal that was later made permanent.
In Moscow, the attacking midfielder has scored 23 goals and supplied 14 assists in 71 appearances across all competitions.
One of those goals in Vlasic’s debut season at CSKA came when he scored the winner against Real Madrid in the Champions League group stages while he also assisted a goal in his side’s shock 3-0 win at the Bernabeu two months later.
Vlasic flopped at Everton but Bilic must feel as though he can get the best out of his fellow Croatian.
However, as Bilic pointed out, Vlasic isn’t only on his radar this summer and Napoli, who have reportedly shown an interest in the Croatian, could be a hard team to come up against in transfer battle.
In other West Brom news, Albion are in talks over this forward’s potential exit.
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