West Brom to ‘leverage’ towards £10m transfer as Leeds United, Leicester City and Burnley eye Grady Diangana
West Brom will likely get a better transfer fee to sell Grady Diangana this summer thanks to the “high volume of interest” in him, according to Ben Jacobs.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT (6 August) the CBS journalist said that he expects a deal to go through in the “next few weeks” and backed the Albion to “leverage” competing interest from Burnley, Leeds United and Leicester City into a price pushing £10million.
Express & Star (1 August) reported all three English clubs after the former England under-21 international, 25, along with “surprising” interest from Saudi Arabia, with £7m mooted as the asking price, but that may now be a conservative estimate.
Jacobs said: “The Leeds interest is there for sure as well. Leicester City have taken a look and Burnley have tracked the player as well.
“So, I would expect this one to get done to one of those clubs over the course of the next few weeks, just because there’s such a high volume of interest there.
“Because of that high volume of interest, obviously West Bromwich Albion can leverage the clubs and play them against each other to get the biggest possible fee, which means that it probably will be closer to £10m than £5m.”
Windfall
Diangana gives Carlos Corberan a versatile attacking option in the squad, but if the manager prefers both Jed Wallace and Matt Phillips on the wings then he can probably afford to sacrifice the former West Ham man.
West Brom are obliged to let players go this summer to help balance a precarious financial situation, with Dara O’Shea’s £7m move to Burnley already more of a blow.
Pushing the price for Diangana up towards eight figures would be an ideal outcome in the circumstances if more do have to leave before the window shuts.
The loan signing of Jeremy Sarmiento from Brighton would likely also help cover for the loss of Diangana, who wasn’t in the match day squad for the defeat to Blackburn in the opener on Saturday (5 August) as he recovers from injury.
It is a fact of life at The Hawthorns currently that calculated decisions have to be made on the squad, through no fault of Corberan’s.
So while he would surely prefer to keep Diangana all things being equal, if the scenario posited by Jacobs comes about before 1 September the Spaniard would presumably be fairly satisfied.
In other West Brom news, the Baggies are still chasing another striker after Josh Maja deal with the man they want named.