West Brom set for immediate fire sale with playoff failure, Karlan Grant and Dara O’Shea sales expected
West Brom will launch an immediate fire sale of players as soon as their Championship playoff hopes are ended, with Dara O’Shea and Karlan Grant two of the players expected to be sold, according to the Daily Mail.
The Baggies currently sit ninth in the Championship and three points off the top six ahead of their crunch clash against Norwich City on Saturday (29 April).
In the January transfer window, Carlos Corberan was limited to moves for Nathaniel Chalobah and Marc Albrighton due to the club’s financial issues off the pitch, and the Spaniard is now set to face more difficulties this summer if they fail to gain promotion to the Premier League.
The Daily Mail wrote: “The club have been struggling with cash-flow problems all season and gambled on promotion by borrowing £20million from MSD Capital to avoid selling players in January, but will struggle to secure more lending while they are still in the Championship.
“To compound matters, their parachute payments from the Premier League will reduce to around £15m next season, so selling players such as Dara O’Shea and Karlan Grant is the only way they can survive.”
Oh dear
Although The Hawthorns was a hive of positivity when Corberan first arrived at the club, their recent drop-off in form could be set to haunt them this summer.
The club’s financial issues have been well documented over the past few months, but it is now a bitter blow that they may have to part ways with the likes of Grant and O’Shea.
O’Shea has been a brilliant force for the Baggies this season, and fans would have been hoping he was set to stay at the club for years to come.
It isn’t all doom and gloom yet, though, with Albion still in with a fighting chance of securing a top-six position.
The clash against Norwich City is a season-defining match, and nothing less than three points will do at this stage of the season.
A win could delay plans for a fire sale, but a loss on Saturday could spell the beginning of a West Brom exodus this summer.
In other West Brom news, a first-team player could be out until June if his injury return goes to plan, according to an injury expert.