West Bromwich Albion are interested in a deal to bring Troy Deeney to The Hawthorns this summer.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a claim made by Joseph Masi, with the Express & Star journalist revealing in a post on Twitter that Valerien Ismael’s side are amongst the club’s keeping a very close eye on the situation of the Watford centre-forward, who has also been linked with a move to Birmingham City and Celtic.
In his tweet, Masi said: “Sources telling me Albion are amongst the clubs monitoring Troy Deeney’s situation at Watford. He’s also being heavily linked with a move to Blues.”
Fans surely buzzing
While it could be argued that Deeney does not necessarily fit Ismael’s mould of signing younger and more versatile players, in addition to the fact that Albion have recently landed Norwich City centre-forward Jordan Hugill on a season-long loan deal, the prospect of the 33-year-old joining West Brom should nevertheless have fans of the club buzzing.
Indeed, while injuries limited the £2.25m-rated man to just 19 Championship appearances last season – only 14 of which came as starts – Deeney still managed to bag seven goals, provide three assists and create three big chances for his teammates. That was as well as taking an average of 1.5 shots and making 1.1 key passes per game.
These returns saw the man Xisco Munoz dubbed a “perfect” player earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.07, ranking him as the Hornets’ fourth-best performer in their promotion-winning campaign.
With that in mind, he could be crucial if the Baggies want to secure their own pathway back to the top-flight this season.
Furthermore, the £65k-per-week striker also bagged a highly impressive 47 goals and registered 21 assists over his 163 Premier League appearances for Watford during the club’s five-year spell in the top flight prior to their relegation in 2019/20 – averaging a direct goal involvement every 2.4 games.
As such, while Deeney may not be the most attractive of signings for Albion, it would be a very difficult argument to make that, on the premise the 33-year-old can maintain his fitness, the addition of the striker would not provide Ismael’s chances of going on to secure automatic promotion this season with a rather substantial boost.
In other news: West Brom face possible transfer blow on “unbelievable” £10m gem, Ismael surely fuming
