Championship

West Bromwich Albion: Journalist makes claim about the Baggies’ summer transfer budget

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Image for West Bromwich Albion: Journalist makes claim about the Baggies’ summer transfer budget

Joseph Masi, Matt Wilson and Luke Hatfield discussed all things West Bromwich Albion on the latest edition of The Express and Star’s Baggies Broadcast podcast and the newly-promoted Baggies’ transfer budget ahead of their Premier League return this coming season was one of the topics of discussion.

West Brom managed to earn promotion to the Premier League by achieving a second-place finish in England’s second tier for the 2019/20 season. The 2020 summer transfer window officially opened for English top-flight clubs earlier this week and during the most recent edition of the Baggies Broadcast podcast, Masi spent some time discussing the transfer budget that Slaven Bilic’s club will have this summer.

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The journalist said: “Everyone’s got to remember that this isn’t going to be [an] unlimited budget. [Technical director] Luke Dowling said it’s going to be middle-ground. They’re not going to spend what Villa spent [last season], they are going to spend more than what Norwich spent.

“You don’t get a lot, really, for a hell of a lot of money in the Premier League these days, so at the end of the day, Albion have got an owner that isn’t investing cash into the club and that’s got to be remembered because they’re self-sufficient, basically.”

Do West Brom need to spend big this summer?

YES

YES

NO

NO

TIF Thoughts…

It may not come as a big surprise that Masi has shared that West Brom aren’t planning to spend as much money as Aston Villa spent last season, considering that the Villans had the highest net transfer spend of any Premier League side for the 2019/20 campaign, following their promotion via the play-offs in the previous season.

However, knowing that Norwich City, who won the Championship in the 2018/19 campaign, had a net transfer spend of just £5.95m last season and ended up finishing at the bottom of the Premier League, it may be somewhat reassuring for Baggies fans to hear that their club are planning to bolster their squad more than the Canaries did last season.

Sheffield United, who were promoted alongside Villa and Norwich in the 2018/19 season, had the eighth-highest net transfer spend of any Premier League side last season and ended up finishing in the highest position (9th) of any of the three newly-promoted sides in the Premier League.

Given that Masi relayed that the Baggies’ transfer budget is ‘going to be middle-ground’, their spending may be closer to the Blades’ spending than either of the other two newly-promoted sides from 2019/20, and knowing that Sheffield United performed better than the other two newly-promoted sides last season, then that transfer budget may be good enough for the Baggies to emulate the Blades’ positive performance if they spend their money wisely.

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