Pulis targets yet another winger for West Brom’s swollen ranks
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It has become abundantly clear that West Brom boss Tony Pulis didn’t think much of the wingers he inherited after taking over on New Year’s Day, given the amount of potential replacements linked to the Hawthorns over the past seven months.
Pulis had a £5m bid for super-quick Leicester striker/winger Jamie Vardy rejected in January, prior to the former Fleetwood favourite finding form for the Foxes, winning the April Premier League Player of the Month award, and making his England debut from the bench against Ireland last month.
The Welsh gaffer picked up £4.75m Liverpudlian Callum McManaman from Wigan instead, and returned to the Latics at the start of the summer for Ireland’s James McClean, who cost around £1.5m.
Those purchases don’t seem to have slaked Pulis’ thirst for more firepower down the Baggies’ flanks, according to recent reports at least, with QPR’s former Blackpool winger Matt Phillips thought to be the latest target to have wandered into West Brom’s crosshairs.
Here’s Phillips scoring last term’s Premier League Goal of the Season (no matter what Match of the Day or Arsenal fans believe):
According to talkSPORT, QPR have rejected a £7m bid for the Buckinghamshire-born Scotland international, with chairman Tony Fernandes holding out for double the £5m they paid the Seasiders two summers ago.
He might get it too, following Phillips’ fine 2014/15 top-flight term which saw him fire three goals and lay on another eight for teammates, despite starting just 20 times after recovering from a broken leg suffered in the middle of the previous campaign.
Negotiations over the 24-year-old’s future are set to continue this week, according to talkSPORT’s piece, and with the Hoops likely to lose his partner-in-crime Charlie Austin this summer, it’s hard to imagine Phillips being a Championship player by the second week in September.
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