Many West Brom fans have called for the club to complete the permanent signing of Filip Krovinovic once his current loan deal with the Baggies expires at the end of the season.
The Croatian attacker has featured in 27 of West Brom’s 33 Championship games so far this season. According to Whoscored.com, he has made an average of 1.3 key passes per game over his 27 appearances thus far for the current league leaders. Only Matt Phillips, Matheus Pereira and January loan signing Callum Robinson have made more key passes per game for the Baggies than Krovinovic this season.
Krovinovic became Slaven Bilic’s first signing upon arriving at The Hawthorns when he joined the Baggies on loan from Benfica in July. It may be likely that compatriot Bilic played a crucial part in luring Krovinovic to the club, with Portuguese newspaper Record reporting that Bilic had been keeping tabs on the Benfica playmaker as early as when he was the manager of Al Ittihad prior to joining West Brom last summer.
Bilic may have been impressed by the former Croatian U21 international’s playmaking ability before he joined West Brom, however, the 24-year-old’s performances with West Brom this season have led to some fans calling for the club to make the transfer permanent in the summer. Read the posts from some Baggies fans calling for the club to sign Krovinovic permanently in the tweets below.
Krovi in ???? = ??? pic.twitter.com/j1vlF52TRR
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) February 19, 2020
Announce permanent signing
— Joe (@Yacxb) February 19, 2020
Surely we have to sign him just to keep Matheus happy alone..? The fact he's a brilliant footballer is just the icing on the cake and even more inventive to do so. Get Krovi the contract ?
— Roberto Townsend ????????? (@ConorCarlosWBA) February 19, 2020
get him signed lads
— Dylan. (@boydenater) February 19, 2020
Hope to hear Pereira and Krovinovic signing permanent too x
— Monica Williams (@Monica9214) February 19, 2020
— Jack ?? (@Jackmaywba) February 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/DeanDjh1976/status/1230182200542404608
What do we think?
Transfermarkt.co.uk currently value the Croatian playmaker at £4.5 million. It may make sense for West Brom to sign the midfielder should they gain promotion to the Premier League, considering he has featured in the vast majority of the current league leaders’ Championship games this season.
The 24-year-old has made a total of just four goal contributions for the Baggies in his 27 appearances this season. Furthermore, his most prolific season in Portugal occurred in the 2016/17 campaign, when he contributed to eight goals for Rio Ave. The Croatian midfielder didn’t feature significantly in his two seasons with Benfica, so it may be difficult to judge him based on his tenure with the club and it may be difficult to know how he would adapt to the Premier League.
However, should West Brom successfully achieve promotion to the Premier League this season, it may be worthwhile for the club to retain key members of their promotion campaign, including Krovinovic.