West Brom players don’t have relegation release clauses – John Percy
West Brom are expected to undergo “huge changes” in the summer transfer window due to the number of players who are out of contract, according to Telegraph journalist John Percy.
Writing on The Telegraph’s website, Percy points out that Kieran Gibbs, Branislav Ivanovic, Hal Robson-Kanu, Charlie Austin, Lee Peltier and Kamil Grosicki are all out of contract in the summer while relegation would mean that loanees Conor Gallagher, Mbaye Diagne, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Okay Yokuslu would return to their parent clubs.
However, West Brom’s finances do appear to have been looked after in the event of relegation as it is understood players will face pay cuts of up to 50 per cent if the Albion drop to the Championship.
Percy also adds, in a welcome boost, that none of West Brom’s players have release clauses in their contracts.
Learning from mistakes
No matter what happens this summer, relegation or not, West Brom’s squad is going to look totally different by the time next season starts.
All of those players who are out of contract in the summer will probably be allowed to leave while the four loanees are also very unlikely to stay with them either playing for better clubs or proving themselves capable in the Premier League.
But what is very welcome about Percy’s update is that the club has learned from past mistakes and does not have relegation get-out clauses in players’ contracts.
Last time we went down, we saw Salomon Rondon, Jonny Evans and Jay Rodriguez move elsewhere due to relegation clauses in their contracts while Ahmed Hegazi also had one [E&S] but ended up staying until this season.
Evans’ £3million relegation buy-out clause [Sky Sports] was definitely a sickener, especially due to how well he’s done at Leicester since they signed him from us.
But that won’t be the case with permanent additions Luke Dowling has overseen in the last couple of years so if the likes of Matheus Pereira or Grady Diangana attract attention, we can negotiate on our own terms and negotiate hard.
In other West Brom news, there’s been a worrying update on Pereira’s future.
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