Reports in recent days have suggested that Nathan Ferguson is still set for a move to Crystal Palace in the summer, which could leave the Baggies regretting how they went about their business in January.
Reports in The Athletic stated that Palace had agreed an £11m deal for the player in January, however, with the player having to undergo surgery on his knee, they decided to pull out of the deal.
According to the Express and Star, the player looks set to exit when his deal expires, and that means his compensation fee will be decided by a tribunal if he continues to play in England.
If he opts to play abroad, Fifa’s compensation rules mean that the club would be due less than £300,000.
Ferguson’s deal is set to expire on June 30, but with the season only set to resume on June 20, it is unsure whether that date will actually be later. Nevertheless, the chances of him playing again this season look next to nothing, with his injury likely to rule him out until the late summer.
The Athletic claim that he is still likely to be a Palace player in the new season, which means that the board will probably be frustrated that they couldn’t secure a permanent transfer in January for the player.
Will we miss Nathan Ferguson?
Yes, he's a top talent
No, we will be just fine
With Palace have right-back problems of their own after they were unable to replace Aaron Wan-Bissaka last summer, they were seemingly desperate to land the youngster. And while it was ultimately the player’s injury which prevented the deal, perhaps West Brom could have lowered their asking price from £11m to try and make sure that the player left despite his injury.
While this is speculative, there’s a strong chance that Palace would have still gone in for him with a less imposing transfer fee considering he was their main target, as it means they wouldn’t have to wrestle with other clubs for his signature this summer.
Furthermore, selling him for just half of the fee that was touted would still have also put off the possibility of losing the player abroad for less than £300,000, which is obviously a very small fee for a player of his quality.
If West Brom gets promoted then the additional television revenue should at least make up those potential losses, but if they fail to go up, they could really end up regretting how they went about the transfer at the beginning of 2020.
