“Certainly a player I’d be looking to move on” – Should West Brom look to offload Valerien Ismael signing this summer? The verdict | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict‘ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Naturally, as we close in on the end of the season, clubs across the EFL will start to think about players they could potentially look to move on this summer.

That will certainly be the case at West Bromwich Albion, for example, with plenty of players contract due to expire in the next year or two.

One of these players is Adam Reach, whose current deal at The Hawthorns expires in the summer of 2024 having joined on a three-year deal under Valerien Ismael back in 2021.

Reach has played just 13 Championship matches this season, starting just one of those matches.

With that in mind, we asked three of our FLW writers if WBA should be thinking about offloading the 30-year-old this summer.

Simmey Hannifin-Donaldson

Adam Reach is certainly a player I’d be looking to move on this summer if I were WBA.

Reach was signed under a previous management and regime and so far this season he has hardly featured at all for the Baggies.

In that sense, even as a squad player it makes little sense to keep him around.

With his deal having a year left, the club may as well look to get some sort of transfer fee for his services whilst they still can.

Whatever that figure turns out to be, it will surely be more valuable to them than having a player who has only played 200 minutes of Championship action this season in their squad.

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Adam Jones

If Albion can ensure they have enough depth without him out wide, then why not?

It’s not as if the 30-year-old is a regular starter and with the player not exactly in his early 20s, he probably isn’t going to generate a lot of revenue for the Baggies in the future.

As an experienced player at this level and someone who can operate both in an advanced midfield role and at full-back, you can understand why someone like him would be useful for most sides in this division.

He hasn’t made too much of an impact during his time at The Hawthorns though and if they can get his salary off the wage bill, then they should be looking to do so.

Recording just one assist in 18 league appearances this term, it doesn’t look as though he will be a key part of Carlos Corberan’s future plans.

Josh Cole

It would be the best move for both parties if Adam Reach is allowed to move on to pastures new in the summer.

The 30-year-old has been unable to establish himself as a key member of Albion’s squad this season as he has been limited to just one start in the Championship.

Currently averaging an underwhelming WhoScored match rating of 6.13 at this level, Reach may have to drop down a division in order to regain his confidence as he is the shadow of the player that starred for Sheffield Wednesday.

While West Brom will be able to secure a fee for Reach that they could use to invest in their squad ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, the midfielder could go on to feature regularly for another side who are able to guarantee him game-time later this year.