Dharmesh Sheth shares huge update on West Brom pursuit of two strikers
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic wants to sign one or both of Karlan Grant and Islam Slimani, according to Sky Sports News reporter Dharmesh Sheth.
Since winning promotion to the Premier League, Albion’s top priority has been to sign a new centre-forward who is capable of scoring the goals to help avoid an instant relegation back to the Championship.
However, even though three matches have been played, the Baggies are yet to achieve that target with Callum Robinson the only reinforcement coming into that area, even though he’s spent most of his career to date as a winger.
Although Robinson netted twice in the 3-3 draw against Chelsea last week, Bilic remains intent on signing at least one more new striker and would be interested in signing both Grant and Slimani if he can.
“West Brom boss Slaven Bilic wants one or both of Huddersfield’s Karlan Grant and Leicester City’s Islam Slimani,” said Sheth on Sky Sports’ Transfer Show on Friday.
It would be terrific if West Brom could sign two new strikers before the transfer window closes.
Albion have until Monday to sign players from outside of England but they can still strike deals for Grant and Slimani up until October 16 as they are from clubs in the EFL and Premier League.
However, it would still be best to get a deal done for one of them as soon as possible because we’re now three matches deep in the new Premier League season and the longer the club waits to do business, the harder it comes for them to hit the ground running.
Ideally, we want a new striker in place by Sunday to take on Southampton at St Mary’s but neither Grant or Slimani have kicked a ball at their respective clubs this season.
In fact, Slimani hasn’t played a competitive fixture since he came off the bench for the final 18 minutes of Monaco’s 2-1 defeat to Nice in early March as he spent last season on loan in France, which curtailed the season early due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Slimani did well in Ligue 1, netting nine goals and supplying seven assists in 18 league appearances for Monaco.
However, he’s hardly shone in the Premier League at Leicester and in a loan spell at Newcastle where he suffered with injuries.
Kevin Phillips told West Brom News earlier this week that signing Slimani would be a risk and that if he had the choice, he’d rather see the Baggies sign Grant over the Algeria international.
We agree with Super Kev but if Bilic and Luke Dowling can sign both forwards, we wouldn’t complain.
However, the club’s budget might get in the way of that happening.
In other West Brom news, Paul Merson has slammed the Baggies for signing this player.
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