John Swift faces January West Brom exit with new Hawthorns contract a mammoth task
John Swift could leave West Brom in the winter transfer window as he has major job on to earn a new deal, according to Carlton Palmer.
The pundit told Football League World on 14 September the Baggies midfielder is a “guarantee” of goals from the position but fans would have expected greater production from the former Reading man.
Swift is yet to score this term and only has three since coming back from injury in November last year, with his Hawthorns deal set to expire in the summer.
Palmer said: “The one thing Swift does is guarantee goals from midfield. He has 76 times in his Football League career, and he boasts 70 assists, so he has a lot of creativity, but he’s got a lot of work to do this season for West Brom to offer him a contract.
“At 29, there’s plenty more to come. West Brom did well last season, as they reached the play-offs, but I think they would’ve been expecting a little bit more from Swift.
“So, we’ll have to wait and see how he does, and if it gets to Christmas and there’s no new contract, you could see him leaving in the January window.”
John Swift regular West Brom starter for Carlos Corberan
On paper Swift’s stats for the Baggies don’t look too bad – 15 league goals and 10 assists – and Carlos Corberan obviously sees him as the best option currently after starting the Englishman in all four Championship fixtures so far.
But it is the nature of the situation at the club currently that squad-building decisions have to be made carefully from a financial perspective as the long hangover from the Guochuan Lai era continues.
So it is far from impossible to see West Brom deciding to let Swift leave in the winter if there is an offer of any value on the table.
Working in his favour is the fact that there isn’t much in the way of an alternative in the central attacking midfield role for Corberan to choose from.
The Albion are fairly well stocked in wide areas in the circumstances, not least in the wake of the headline permanent deal to bring Mikey Johnston back from Celtic after such a major impact on loan last season, but centrally less so.
Grady Diangana would probably be the next best option and had a relatively productive campaign last term while often featuring there, but his contract also runs out at the end of the season and Corberan has only seen fit to give him a handful of minutes off the bench so far in the new campaign.
Swift will have seen the likes of Cedric Kipre allowed to leave at the end of his deal in the summer despite being an important player so will know he isn’t necessarily secure, but if the numbers work he could benefit from the lack of obvious competition.
In other West Brom news, Don Goodman is excited about a recent development at The Hawthorns.
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