da stake casino： According to The Sun’s Alan Nixon, West Bromwich Albion’s former loan ace and long-time target Dwight Gayle is available for £8m with several teams now cooling their interest.
What’s he said?
da bet vitoria： The Baggies have held an interest in the Newcastle United frontman for quite some time after he bagged 24 goals in 40 appearances at the Hawthorns last season.
That interest is still believed to exist, as per The Athletic last week.
Although, they state that the Magpies would want £15m to let him go, so Nixon’s latest update is somewhat a boost as it’s nearly half the amount initially believed.
He said:
Risky business
In the summer, Albion reportedly couldn’t afford Gayle and opted for Charlie Austin for £4m instead, with the 29-year-old’s wages being a significant factor.
Sporting and technical director Luke Dowling claimed the striker was on “Premier League wages”, which are supposedly around £50k-per-week, and West Brom missing out on promotion meant they were simply priced out of a permanent deal.
Now that the asking price is a bit lower, it raises an interesting question over whether or not the club should stump up the cash to clinch him this time around.
All three strikers at Bilic’s disposal have found their goalscoring boots in the last few months, so maybe the position isn’t one they need to add value to – they have 17 goals between them.
It would certainly be risky business to fund the finances that would be involved in any deal with Gayle. If they weren’t to go up again this season, then they’d be potentially left with a financial disaster.
How much do you remember about football in 2019? Our quiz will test your knowledge…
They could instead avert their attention to their defence, where they have struggled to keep many clean sheets this season. Albion’s backline has managed a shutout in just 19% of their league matches.
That appears to be where the title – or even automatic promotion – could be won or lost as the great Sir Alex Ferguson once said: ‘attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.’
It’s fair to say he certainly knows a thing or two about that…
And in other news, Slaven Bilic can boost his January coffers by offloading this Tony Pulis signing…