West Bromwich Albion could lose out on a promising youngster this month, and no, this time it isn’t Nathan Ferguson but rather summer loan signing Chris Willock with Express & Star reporter Joseph Masi casting doubts over his future at the club.
What’s he said?
The Baggies advanced into the fourth round of the FA Cup at the weekend by defeating Championship rivals Charlton Athletic 1-0 at The Valley on Sunday afternoon.
Slaven Bilic rung the changes by naming an entirely different starting XI to the one that drew to Leeds United on New Year’s Day.
It meant that several fringe players and youngsters were handed an opportunity in some form – the likes of Kenneth Zohore, Chris Brunt and Dara O’Shea all started while Rico Richards, Jamie Soule and Rayhaan Tulloch were handed places on the bench.
As did Willock, but he wasn’t called upon at all, leading to Masi saying this:
Unlikely future?
The 21-year-old joined the club on deadline day on loan from Benfica but is yet to feature for the senior side. In fact, Sunday’s non-appearance was the first time he’s even been named in the matchday squad this season.
It is quite the odd situation that a player who was brought in alongside Grady Diangana and Matheus Pereira is yet to feature, even more so with previous reports claiming the club wanted to keep him on despite this.
Masi’s comments now throw a spanner in the works as if the rising talent can’t get a game when Bilic makes vast changes, then what hope does he have for the rest of the season with the Baggies trying to earn promotion back to the promised land.
Willock was once described as ‘very gifted’ by Arsene Wenger, so much so that he would have no qualms about playing him and that was when he was just 19.
His career hasn’t exactly panned out so well since then as he’s not even been able to play for Benfica’s first-team either.
It’s the dawn of a new decade in the Premier League, but how much do you know about the last 10 years?
The Daily Mail reported last month that some of Albion’s league rivals were keen on poaching him during this transfer window, so Willock’s potential future at the Hawthorns is certainly diminishing piece by piece.
And in other news,ÂWest Brom starlet provokes fans into believing there is life after Nathan Ferguson if he is to depart this month…
