Gianluca Frabotta set for West Brom medical as QPR beaten to signing Juventus defender
West Brom have overtaken Queens Park Rangers in the race for Gianluca Frabotta and are now in line to sign the full-back, Gianluca Di Marzio reports.
According to the Sky Sports Italy journalist via X late on 5 August the Juventus defender was already due for a Baggies medical the following day.
The Italian full-back is then expected to put pen to paper on a deal to join the Albion later on Tuesday 6 August.
Frabotta, 25, would help cover for the departure of Conor Townsend to Ipswich Town earlier in the transfer window.
Carlos Corberan set for Conor Townsend West Brom replacement
The summer is proving to be anything but a walk in the park for Carlos Corberan after his promotion bid fell short in the play offs last term.
Shilen Patel may have finally ended the Guochuan Lai reign but the new owner still has an unenviable financial picture to oversee which means West Brom have been unable to avoid significant exits throughout the squad.
Brandon Thomas-Asante and Okay Yokuslu are the most recent blows as they left for Coventry City and Trabzonspor, to join the likes of Townsend, Cedric Kipre and Matt Phillips on the list of notable departures.
But the striker and central midfielder have brought in much-needed transfer fees and despite the lack of spending power the Albion are managing to bring in replacements as best they can, even if the return of Mikey Johnston from Celtic hasn’t materialised.
Assuming there is no late hitch at the medical it looks like they have won the race for Frabotta to join Ousmane Diakité, Devante Cole and Torbjorn Heggem as the nominal replacements for Yokuslu, Thomas-Asante and Kipre respectively.
The Italian hasn’t actually played a game for Juventus in the past three seasons since making 17 appearances in the 2020/21 campaign where he also featured in the Champions League.
He has since been on two unfruitful loans in Serie A at Hellas Verona and Lecce, before three more in Serie B where he saw more notable action at Frosinone, Bari and then Cosenza.
But he was clearly not entirely unwanted if QPR were in the running too so it is a boost that the Baggies look to have swooped in and got a deal quickly in place.
In other West Brom news, the Baggies secured a seven-figure transfer fee to sell a key man from last season.
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