Aston Villa to inadvertently cause fresh West Brom transfer headache as medical underway
Aston Villa have caused countless headaches for West Brom in the transfer market in recent years.
Since Luke Dowling provoked a mass exodus of academy staff at The Hawthorns, most of whom headed to Villa Park as a result, a spate of players have also swapped the Black Country for Birmingham.
From Rico Richards to Tim Iroegbunam and Finn Azaz to, most recently, Max Jenner, Aston Villa’s youth recruitment has understandably antagonised West Brom fans, who’ve watched their club powerlessly give up talent after talent.
However, the most annoying deal could be yet to come for the Baggies because Villa may inadvertently cause Okay Yokuslu to complete a move away from The Hawthorns to join Hull City.
Hull Live reported on 15 June that the Tigers are looking to make a breakthrough in talks with West Brom over signing the former Celta Vigo midfielder. And this isn’t just newspaper talk or agent-fed speculation either because Hull’s vice-chairman Tan Kesler has confirmed via Hull Live (16 July) that discussions have been held with the Albion.
Now, many West Brom fans have been talking down the speculation that’s linked the popular 30-year-old with a move to Humberside. ‘Why would he want to join a smaller club?’, ‘it’s a sideways move at best’, some fans have been saying. Yokuslu has also been linked with a return to Turkiye with Besiktas and Trabzonspor reportedly keen and set to play in the Europa League next season, so that also sounds more prosperous than a switch to Hull.
Aston Villa could cause West Brom to lose Okay Yokuslu
However, Hull are Turkish-owned, had a strong season last time out by challenging the Albion for a spot in the play-offs and could have plenty of money to burn in the coming days because of – you guessed it – Aston Villa.
Speaking to Hull Live on 6 February, football finance guru Kieran Maguire said that the Tigers would need to sell a player this summer in order to balance the books after they essentially ‘went for it’ last season and failed in their promotion bid.
Jaden Philogene is undoubtedly one of the hottest properties in the Championship this summer with a score of Premier League clubs linked with signing him.
It’s the Villans, however, who seem to have won the race for the 22-year-old’s signature with Football Insider reporting 15 July that the attacker is undergoing a medical ahead of re-signing for his former club.
Villa included a buy-back clause when they sold Philogene to Hull last summer and he’s now on his way back to the West Midlands for a fee of £12.6million [The Sun].
The Yorkshire club will no doubt use that money to balance their books and are likely to have some change left over to afford Yokuslu, who’s in the final year of his deal at The Hawthorns.
The Turkish media has claimed that a fee of around £1.2million could be enough to strike a deal with the Albion [Gökmen Özcan] and this was backed up by the Express & Star’s Lewis Cox on 8 July.
West Brom fans are unlikely to be happy about this because there’s every chance that in the coming weeks, they’ll see one of their favourite players leave to join a Championship promotion rival, for just over £1million thanks to Aston Villa.
In other West Brom news, Corberan is a outside bet to seal this major job away from The Hawthorns after a development on Tuesday.
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