West Brom ‘unlikely’ to be able to sell senior players this summer – Joseph Masi
West Brom may have an overload of problems right now but they might be increased this summer according to Express and Star journalist Joseph Masi.
The Baggies, who have just one point and one goal in their five games under Steve Bruce, have a number of senior players on long-term deals who haven’t been performing to the high standards they should have been.
Masi worries that the club will struggle to sell these players given their dreadful form in recent months which has seen them plummet into the bottom half of the Championship.
With most clubs who might take them unable to pay huge fees, Masi thinks the Albion may be stuck with them, as he expressed on the Express and Star’s YouTube channel.
“The contracts thing’s a real worry; Karlan Grant, Callum Robinson, Kyle Bartley, Jake Livermore, Matt Phillips, Darnell Furlong – they’re all on long deals,” he said.
“I’m not saying those players all need to leave, but if you want to refresh this group – which, let’s be honest, any manager probably would – they’re all on long-term deals, can Albion offload them? After this season, it’s going to be very, very unlikely.”
Start again
The aforementioned players haven’t been anywhere near their best this season, but no Albion player has been in fairness.
If a new manager is brought in next season, it gives every player at the club a clean slate to start from and we may see the best in some of them once again.
Some Baggies fans might not want that though, they’ve been here long enough to prove they are good enough and they haven’t managed it.
Whoever takes over from Bruce, if he doesn’t continue into next season, has a remarkably hard turnaround job to do but the talent is in the squad already.
It just needs someone who can prize the best out of a handful of players and blood some of the academy talents such as Reyes Cleary and Taylor Grander-Hickman and West Brom will soon be flying high again.
In other West Brom news, we think the Baggies board should beg this manager to return to The Hawthorns.