Steve Cooper addresses Lewis O’Brien reports as West Brom eye transfer
Steve Cooper has hinted that there are no immediate talks to let Lewis O’Brien leave Nottingham Forest despite interest from West Brom.
Alan Nixon reported via his Patreon page on 8 January that the Baggies were looking to reunite the midfielder, who left Huddersfield Town in the summer, with his former manager Carlos Corberan.
But while the rumours flew around, Cooper moved to quash any hope that a transfer would be immediate as he faced the media.
“There isn’t anything imminent about to happen, and I know if there was something then I’d be fully aware – but I do know there’s a lot of work going on,” Cooper said, as quoted by Birmingham Live.
“I trust fully that, when the time is right and he [owner Evangelos Marinakis] feels that I should know something, he will tell me.
“If at such time we need to talk about something, then we’ll do that. At the moment, I don’t think anything is about to happen – both in or out.”
Plenty of time
With form sky high at The Hawthorns right now, West Brom are no longer needing to rush to make January signings as they might have been when Corberan took over from Steve Bruce.
O’Brien would no doubt improve the quality in the midfield and slot in nicely alongside Okay Yokuslu but if Forest are currently unwilling to let anyone go amid their Premier League relegation dogfight then the Baggies can wait.
The push for the Championship promotion places are fierce right now and Albion will no doubt need some form of improvement somewhere to keep their momentum going in the right direction.
If a deal is fairly cheap for O’Brien, or even a loan move, then it would seem crazy not to at least discuss a potential move with the Reds who have plenty of players on their books after signing more than 20 players in the summer and have more on their radar too.
In other West Brom news, this loanee has rejected a chance to stay for the rest of the season in order to return to The Hawthorns instead.