Exclusive: Phillips urges West Brom to ‘wait until January’ as player reportedly heads for exit
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips has urged West Brom to keep hold of Kamil Grosicki until at least January amid reports that the Poland international is closing in on a move away from The Hawthorns.
According to reliable football journalist Pete O’Rourke, the 32-year-old winger is set to join Olympiakos on a permanent basis from the Baggies but will be instantly loaned to Nottingham Forest.
Olympiakos and Forest are both owned by Greek businessman Evangelos Marinakis.
Grosicki has failed to make any league appearances for West Brom since winning promotion to the Premier League and struggled to start for the club in the second half of last season when he was snapped up from Hull City.
The Polish winger did make a bit of an impact for Albion as they finished second in the Championship and Phillips still believes he has a role to play at The Hawthorns.
“At the end of the day, it’s the player that will call the shots,” Phillips told West Brom News.
“He might’ve gone there and thought: ‘I’ve not got the game-time I’d have liked’.
“He didn’t play an awful lot in the Championship and the Premier League is a big step up. He’s not going to get the game-time he would like so I think the player himself will make that call.
“It’s only Slaven Bilic who will know if Grosicki’s good enough for the Premier League. I don’t think he’d have brought him in if he didn’t think that because you always have one eye on the Premier League.
“I’d be very surprised if those sorts of players are leaving the club at this stage of the window – I’d wait until January if I was being honest.”
West Brom have not really added any new faces to their winger options since the end of last season.
If anything they’ve lost a player in that area with Callum Robinson now considered a striker.
However, the Baggies still have Matheus Pereira, Grady Diangana, Kyle Edwards, Matt Phillips and Hal Robson-Kanu who can play out wide, as well as Robinson if needed.
There are plenty of options there for Bilic to pick from so making a bit of money on selling Grosicki, who’s in the final year of his contract, perhaps makes sense.
In other West Brom news, this is why Conor Gallagher was missing for Albion’s defeat to Southampton.
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