With the Wolverhampton Wanderers revolution in football, ties to a football agent, spending and their ultimate promotion to the Premier League last season, West Brom fans are probably sick of hearing about their players.
However, reports are linking us with a Neves discovery of our own this week.
Foreign outlet ElDia have linked us with an interest in Wilmar Barrios.
The 24-year-old Colombian international is currently in Russia on World Cup duty and eagled eyes fans may have spotted him in yesterday’s clash against Japan – well the referee did, he booked him. You can have a look at the world cup betting to see how Columbia are fancied. Not a lot in truth!
He has previously been linked with Tottenham Hotspur this summer but it’s said we are now preparing a £14.5million bid as we look to gain promotion at the first time of asking under head coach Darren Moore.
The speculation has come out of nowhere, and my own opinion is it should be filed immediately in Bin 13 as with falling revenues following the loss of Premier League money I don’t see West Brom going for the ‘spend or bust’ approach this summer. Even under Guochuan Lai whilst we saw an uplift in the names of targets and wages paid, it’s not like we’ve taken a transfer splash the cash approach.
With Barrios talked of as being in the same sort of class as Neves though, given the impact he had on the Championship last year, this would certainly be a transfer that would lift everyone if it unexpectedly came to pass – but again, I’m not expecting to see his name mentioned for a second time unless the press rehash this rumour at the same time next week.
And to be frank, it was more enjoyable typing the above and dreaming for a little while than it was talking about a transfer that is absolutely more likely to happen if an agreement can be made.
The Royal Gazette have Burnley striker Nahki Wells talking about how he doesn’t regret making the move to the club when he left Huddersfield Town and that’s kicked off a range of reports which suggest he does, and that West Brom have identified him as a potential target for the summer.
Given his goals at Championship level in previous season’s the speculation writes itself in many ways so it’s not a surprising development as it does tick the necessary ‘is it possible’ boxes.
With rumours that Burnley are interested in Jay Rodriguez it also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with a potential cash + swap deal given their differing valuations.
