[ad_pod ]
This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
According to The Daily Star, West Brom have rejected an offer from West Ham for Salomon Rondon. The terms of the deal included a £10m fee plus Sam Byram and Jordan Hugill.
What’s the word?
Technical director Luke Dowling has confirmed ahead of the new season that Rondon will no longer be a Baggies player next term.
He suggested in quotes relaid by Express & Star that they were happy to sell and that Newcastle still had an interest in the striker after his successful loan spell last campaign.
However, it now appears as though West Ham have entered the race for the forward.
The Daily Star reported this week that the Hammers had a bid rejected for the Venezuelan which saw them offer £10m plus Byram and Hugill for his services.
Rondon currently has a £16.5m release clause in his contract.
Watch West Bromwich Albion Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below
Forget about Hugill
West Brom were absolutely right to reject this bid and if West Ham continue to offer Hugill in a swap deal they must knock it back again.
The fact of the matter is that the Irons striker simply isn’t good enough to help them achieve promotion.
Albion have already said they don’t see it financially viable to bring back Dwight Gayle, meaning he’ll leave behind 24 Championship goals.
That’s a big void and signing Hugill to fill the gap would be incredibly poor business, irrespective of whether they’d finally be selling Rondon as part of the deal.
In the Championship last term, the 27-year-old only scored six goals in 37 outings on loan at Middlesbrough.
It was a dismal return from a forward who previously looked competent in the division. Back in 2016/17, he netted 12 times for Preston but he’s been fairly mediocre since.
The fans in the video below had some very strong words for Michel Platini who was detained over alleged corruption this week…
West Brom will arguably need greater depth in attack next season but Hugill is hardly the type of character who will help fire them to promotion.
The Baggies are already having to cut down on wages so they’d be better off searching for someone in the transfer market that is guaranteed to score them goals, rather than accepting terms to bring Hugill to the Hawthorns.