West Bromwich Albion journalist Joe Masi has made a claim about Matheus Pereira and his future away from the club.
The Brazilian playmaker has been one of the few bright sparks for the Baggies this season, scoring 10 goals and chipping in with five assists, which has been good enough to earn him a WhoScored rating of 6.92 for the season so far.
Ultimately though it hasn’t been enough as the club’s fate was sealed this weekend with the club being relegated back to the Championship.
Naturally, those numbers have attracted some attention from clubs around the world, a report from The Express claiming that Leeds United, Leicester City and RB Leipzig have shown an interest. And speaking on the latest edition of Baggies Broadcast, Masi thinks that his performances can bring in a much higher range of clubs into the fold:
(11:41) “Yeah, so this is obviously the big thing everyone wants to know really can Albion keep Matheus Pereira and the answer is probably not.
(13:44) “He’s elevated himself to mid-table at worst. He deserves to be playing for a top-half Premier League club. He deserves to be playing for a club that’s got European aspirations and I think they’ll be the clubs that come in from now. So I just don’t think you can deprive him that move. For me, he’s good enough to play for Arsenal.
(14:33) “You can’t expect him to say, ‘Okay, I’ll stick on my £30k a week in the Championship and give you a year’, when Arsenal could offer him £70k a week. I mean, it just wouldn’t it be right if Arsenal are willing to pay the fee.
“They’ve got to pay the fee, he’s definitely a £30m player, my £18m-£25m prediction is absolute nonsense the way he’s taken it to the next level. Someone’s got to come in and give up Albion a fair price from and Albion will hold out for a price that’s right.”
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TIF Thoughts on Joe Masi’s comments on Matheus Pereira’s future
This should really be encouraging news for West Bromwich Albion fans, if a higher calibre club comes in for him, then that should really drive up the price that he’s worth and what the Baggies can get for him.
And with West Brom needing to bring in as much money as they can get in order to find a squad that can push for promotion, that little extra bit of money could make a huge difference to who they can look to bring in.
In other news: ‘He’ll make them champions next year’ – TalkSPORT pundit drops big West Brom claim