West Brom transfer announcement on the cards for Monday as paperwork is finalised – report
West Brom could wait until Monday to announce Branislav Ivanovic’s free transfer to The Hawthorns, according to Express & Star journalist Joseph Masi.
Writing via his personal Twitter account on Friday after Slaven Bilic confirmed that Ivanovic, 36, is undergoing a medical at the Baggies, Masi reported that Albion are yet to finalise their paperwork to officially sign the former Chelsea defender.
It is understood that as the Leicester match is set to take place on Sunday, Ivanovic’s deal might not be completed until early next week.
Ivanovic is not a priority signing for West Brom so there is no rush at all to get this transfer done and dusted.
Bilic, as quoted by the Birmingham Mail, has said that it will take at least two weeks for the former Serbia international to get fully up to speed to be able to feature in his first-team.
Ivanovic can play at right-back and centre-back but we expect him to be seen as more of a centre-back by Bilic due to his age and experience.
West Brom have plenty of centre-back options with Semi Ajayi, Kyle Bartley, Ahmed Hegazi, Dara O’Shea and new signing Cedric Kipre all able to play there.
Once Ivanovic is ready to play for the Baggies, we think he could become a start of Bilic’s starting line-up alongside Ajayi in the heart of the Croatian manager’s defence.
In other West Brom news, Richard Keys has tipped Bilic to leave The Hawthorns before Christmas.
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