Defender Ahmed Hegazi will not be leaving West Brom during the summer transfer window, The Express and Star’s Joseph Masi has claimed.
Hegazi found himself down the pecking order for the Baggies at times last season, and was reportedly the subject of a £3.4million bid from Al-Ittihad in his native Egypt back in the winter.
The centre back was also an unused substitute in Sunday’s opening day defeat to Leicester, although it seems as though 29-year-old will not be going anywhere this summer regardless of that.
Speaking on the Baggies Broadcast podcast about the future of Hegazi at The Hawthorns, Masi said: “I’ve spoken to people close to Hegazi and they say he is going nowhere.
“Whether that’s changed since I spoke to them, I don’t know, but I don’t think Albion are going to sell Hegazi.”
As things stand, there are two years remaining on Hegazi’s contract with West Brom, securing his future at the club until the end of the 2021/22 season.
It is hard to know what to make of this stance from West Brom in all honesty.
On the one hand, it does seem sensible to retain the services of Hegazi, who has previously proven to be a reliable option at top-flight level, and could yet be so again this season if he is called upon.
In contrast to that however, it does not seem as though he is close to being a regular feature for Bilic’s side at this moment in time, something unlikely to be helped by the arrival of Branislav Ivanovic earlier this week.
As a result, you wonder whether it may have made sense to move him on this summer, raising funds and making space in the wage budget for new recruits in areas of the squad that need more work doing on them than the centre of defence.
