Jonny Drury made a fascinating remark about West Brom in an Express & Star opinion piece on Wednesday (10 January).
The journalist suggested that the Baggies’ off-field financial troubles have had one positive impact at The Hawthorns.
Namely, the club has been forced to rely on its youth system. His example was Tom Fellows, who was given the opportunity to play for the first team this season.
He stated, “You’d be hard pressed to find any beneficiaries of West Brom’s financial demise in recent years.” However, you could argue that some players, particularly the exceptional teenagers coming through the club’s ranks, profit from it.
“The off-field scenario has contributed to Albion’s growing difficulty to remain at the top of the Championship transfer rankings in recent seasons.
“You could argue that this has caused Corberan and others at the club to look inward, perhaps more than they have previously had to. And the major beneficiary of that circumstance right now appears to be Tom Fellows.”
It is a completely valid point of view. The main difficulty is that the current hiatus in news about acquisition talks has a detrimental impact. Surprisingly, one that may harm the club’s prospects with Fellows.
Reliable Italian writer Fabrizio Romano revealed on X (10 January) that the 20-year-old forward is now the target of purported attention from Premier League club Everton.
“Everton are monitoring 2003 born talent Tom Fellows at WBA over potential summer move, as he’s out of contract in June,” Romano stated in an email.
“He’s been fantastic for WBA this season and scored the first goal in the FA Cup. 777 Partners likes the player and may explore signing and then loaning Fellows.
The irony here is that Everton’s interest is most likely motivated by their own financial troubles and constant effort to stay inside Financial Fair Play rules, thus they are keeping an eye on a young talent who will be out of contract in six months.
For West Brom, it highlights the need of moving quickly when it comes to takeover talks. If a deal had already been completed – or was close to being completed – Fellows might have signed new terms.
As it is, Fellows, like the takeover talks, is in a waiting game that may lead him to take a chance on a move to the Toffees.
Lewis Cox, Drury’s colleague, spoke on the Express & Star’s Baggies Broadcast (4 January, 22:00) and provided a good update.
“There’s encouraging, positive news in terms of things with the leading group bidders and prospective owners having moved forward and advanced with talks and really gathered pace, really advanced to a good place,” Cox was quoted as saying.
“I know the club hopes and wants, and I believe everyone involved wants to finish this and bring it to, if not over, the finish line as soon as possible in January. They don’t want to be nearing the end of the month or entering February, or anything like that.
“That’s not to say it won’t happen; these things aren’t easy. But I believe it has advanced at a reasonable rate for what it is. We understand it’s a US organization, led by a representative from another country, with representation here, purchasing an English club, an English corporation owned by a Chinese individual group who are clearly on the other side of the planet. It’s a tough issue. It’s not an easy thing to sort.
“But it’s moving at a good rate, as far as I understand and am led to believe. Everyone hopes it won’t take too long.”
However, the tempo needs to go up much further. West Brom don’t want their top young prospects to be plucked by other clubs.
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