West Brom’s Sporting and Technical Director Luke Dowling has confirmed that Nathan Ferguson’s agent has informed the club that his teenage client will be leaving the Championship side this summer.
Speaking to The Express and Star, the Baggies official confessed that the 19-year-old fullback will be departing the Hawthorns when his contract expires at the end of this season after emerging from the club’s academy and asserting himself as one of Slaven Bilic’s most important players this campaign.
Ferguson’s contract situation has been a major issue for the club since his breakthrough into the first-team, and the defender came close to a move from West Brom in the previous January transfer window when the Albion agreed an £11m deal with Crystal Palace for the youngster as reported by BBC Sport.
However, a failed medical saw the transfer collapse, and Dowling has now revealed that the teenager will leave the club no matter what in the summer.
Will Ferguson ever play for West Brom again?YesNo |
The Sporting and Technical Director said: “The discussions we’ve had with his representatives since deadline day suggest that he’ll still leave us at the end of the season. The potential of him staying here hasn’t even been talked about. So, if we can get a deal agreed between now and the end of the season, then we’ll do that. If not, then whoever does take him, it’ll go to a tribunal.”
Dowling also admitted that Ferguson is set to go under the knife to solve a knee problem that prevented the defender from completing his move to the Eagles two weeks ago, with the Premier League club suggesting that the defender has surgery on his knee to solve an issue that was raised during the player’s medical as reported by The Athletic.