West Brom 'mystery' emerges as Gianluca Frabotta transfer claim made

Don Goodman is perplexed at the lack of minutes Carlos Corberan has afforded to Gianluca Frabotta since joining West Brom.

Frabotta arrived at The Hawthorns from Juventus in August but has made just four substitute appearances in the Championship, totalling 25 minutes on the field.

The defender's only start so far came in the EFL Cup first-round loss to Fleetwood Town on 13 August, and Goodman has suggested it may be down to a lack of quality.

"Clearly he's not the player West Brom thought they were getting," he told West Brom News. "Someone who arrived with such a good reputation, you'd have expected him to have broken into the team by now.

"It's not a couple of games into a season - we're into the second half of October now. You look at the time he's been in England, the time he's been at the football club, and you wonder what the problem is?

"Is he not at the level they thought he'd be? That's all I can imagine really. Maybe they haven't signed what they thought they were signing. Carlos has a unique way of doing things, but it's a mystery to me."

Gianluca Frabotta yet to prove himself at West Brom

Corberan recently explained his plan to slowly get Frabotta up to speed with life in English football, with this his first club outside of his native Italy.

At the age of 25, Frabotta is not exactly a youngster and he would no doubt have expected to be a regular starter at the back.

The big problem, though, is that fellow summer signing Torbjorn Heggem has made a very strong start to life at The Hawthorns and will be very tough to dislodge at left-back.

Given Frabotta's inclusion for the Under-21s on Thursday (17 October), it looks unlikely his first start for the senior side will be arriving anytime soon.

This may still be a transfer that pays off, but the early signs are not positive.

In other West Brom news, Goodman has reacted to what Karlan Grant has said about Albion supporters.

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