Nathan Ferguson & Ahmed Hegazi message West Brom player after loan exit agreed
Nathan Ferguson and Ahmed Hegazi are among the players reacting on Instagram after West Brom midfielder Rekeem Harper joined Birmingham on loan on Thursday.
Albion announced via their official website this week that Harper, 20, has agreed a short-term deal with Blues in a bid to earn much-needed first-team experience.
After the announcement was made, Harper took to his personal Instagram account to say he “can’t wait to get started” at St Andrew’s ahead of potentially making his debut against Coventry on Saturday.
A number of players reacted to Harper’s move with Crystal Palace’s Ferguson saying: “It’s about to get Raktive.”
Ex-Albion centre-back Hegazi posted a series of emojis while Conor Gallagher sent his best wishes to the young central midfielder.
Even Oliver Burke and Allan Nyom were among the former Baggies players sending messages to the clearly-popular 20-year-old.
Big loan spell for Harper
It is quite interesting that Harper has joined Birmingham and we’ll be watching him very closely throughout the duration of his loan spell at St Andrew’s.
Harper was such a promising young talent when he first broke into the West Brom first-team a few years ago but in the last couple of seasons, it’s all been very quiet in terms of his development.
Darren Moore clearly fancied the midfielder a lot more than Slaven Bilic did, who played Harper just 13 times in all competitions last season and three times this season.
Sam Allardyce hasn’t had many opportunities to play Harper but he could have gave the youngster a chance to impress at Blackpool in the FA Cup earlier this month. That didn’t happen and all Big Sam has done in play Harper for nine minutes in the Premier League loss to Arsenal.
Harper really must push on and improve at Birmingham.
He’s still a very raw young player but there is talent in there that needs to be brought out and showcased more regularly.
Blues have struggled in the Championship this season and pragmatic manager Aitor Karanka might not be the best mentor for someone who likes to be on the ball and pushing forward.
We’ll see though. And, at the end of the day, game-time is very important so we’re just glad he might have more opportunities this year.
In other West Brom news, Albion are in the hunt to sign this £50,000-a-week Premier League centre-mid.
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