Jonny Drury and Lewis Cox bring you the latest West Brom news on January transfer window deadline day.
Albion are set to do some late business with outgoings and incomings set to be announced.
Lewis and Cox discuss those and the latest there, but also look at reports that Tom Fellows was subject of bids from Everton.
The Express & Star confirmed Albion have received no bids for Fellows, but after long standing interest from Everton, Jonny and Lewis look at the situation and what the future holds for Fellows beyond this window and into the summer.
And they discuss the likelihood of Karlan Grant departing after interest in him today.
Albion are set to do some late business with outgoings and incomings set to be announced.
Lewis and Cox discuss those and the latest there, but also look at reports that Tom Fellows was subject of bids from Everton.
The Express & Star confirmed Albion have received no bids for Fellows, but after long standing interest from Everton, Jonny and Lewis look at the situation and what the future holds for Fellows beyond this window and into the summer.
And they discuss the likelihood of Karlan Grant departing after interest in him today.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Baggies fans, welcome back to ExpressingStar.com on this transfer deadline day. There's a few
00:13hours left until the window closes at 11pm. I'm not going to call it January transfer
00:18deadline day because it's not. We're in February. It's a bit of a weird transfer under this
00:22year. I'm here with Lewis Cox. We brought you a video earlier on. Not a great deal has
00:26happened but we're expecting it to in the coming hours. Alec Palmer, out for £5m. Ipswich.
00:33Tama Banny in from Randers as we brought you this afternoon for just over £3m. They attack
00:40in midfield. Harlan Grant still being linked with a move away from Albion. And as Albion
00:46fans will have seen, a few reports in the last couple of hours. Feels like rinse and
00:51repeat from the last couple of transfer windows. Edderton reportedly interested in Tom Fellowes.
00:57Two reports saying that bids have been submitted of £10m and then £15m, a bid that was reportedly
01:03rejected. We've confirmed that that is false. Those bids have not been submitted.
01:08Boxi, it stirred up a little bit of angst among the Albion fanbase. We suppose it did
01:13late in the summer window when St Ampton come in for, I think, around £10m to £12m. As
01:18it stands, it very much looks like Tom Fellowes will be an Albion player after the 11pm deadline.
01:25It's far, far too late for Albion to even entertain a bid. But even if those bids that
01:31we had reported before were submitted, I am sure they would have been pretty much flat
01:35rejected.
01:36Yes, good evening Jonny. The good news for Baggies fans watching this and in general
01:43when it comes to Tom Fellowes is that there is no news. Basically, we can pretty flatly
01:48knock those down. Edderton have held a long-standing interest, haven't they? As you say over a
01:54couple of windows, this is nothing new. I did suspect at some point this month, I mean,
01:59I think it was potentially earlier a month, Fabrizio Romano, I think, pushed it a little
02:04bit. I wondered if it'd crop up again on deadline day and here we are. But yes, suggestions
02:10of a £10m deal being agreed seemed absolutely crazy to me, really. I don't think that one
02:18took much knocking back, really, considering Albion turned down more than that in the summer,
02:23as you say. And Tom Fellowes has since gone on to lead the Championship assist standings
02:28at the age of 21. Just nonsensical, really.
02:31As you say, there has been another suggestion since that the Toffees have come in with an
02:38approach of £15m. As you say, Johnny, we're also told that is not true. So, yes, we're
02:45expecting that to remain the case until the 11pm deadline we're speaking at, sort of,
02:51early evening time, just gone seven. So, yes, I wouldn't expect that to change now. I think
02:58the crux now is a couple of things, really, this month. Certainly, with the ownership
03:03of Bilkul as well, Albion don't have to sell Tom Fellowes. The finances, the stability
03:09of the club don't rest on it and that's one clear thing. If this whole episode was happening
03:1512 months earlier, just prior to the takeover, then potentially a slightly different conversation.
03:20But no, as was in the summer, Albion don't have to sell Fellowes. But also, we're talking
03:26about 7pm on transfer deadline day here, where, OK, as you say, even if that deal, even if
03:32a £15m offer was real and genuine, and I don't think that's an offer Albion would want
03:37to accept, by the way, but if they did, less than, what, three and a half hours to reinvest
03:42it now, isn't there, and find a suitable replacement? And when you're talking about Fellowes, it
03:47would take quite a significant replacement, wouldn't it? So, yes, no news there, nothing
03:51to read there. Other clubs credited of interest as well, weren't they, in that latter report?
03:55Brentford, Bournemouth, those kind of high-flying Premier League clubs at the moment who do
04:01invest well, typically. I don't think, my reading of Fellowes' situation, I don't think
04:05it's any great secret, and I think most would agree that if Albion don't win promotion to
04:11the Premier League this season, and aren't playing top football next season, I think
04:15the summer interest in Fellowes will be significant. And we'll see how the rest of the season goes
04:21for Fellowes, really, and how many more assists and goals it can chalk up, but I would expect
04:27heavy interest, and that would be the time for me, I think, where Albion would have to
04:31look at it, and not have to sell, but look at it and really consider the sums being offered
04:36to them. Obviously, they could dig their heels in and command the fee they want, and then
04:41obviously have the time to reinvest it properly on a proper, significant, substantial fee
04:47to reinvest, and obviously, Tom Fellowes is an academy graduate. The money that would
04:52come in for him would be hugely, hugely significant for PSR and all of those financial fair play
05:00regs. So, yeah, nothing doing today, thankfully, on Fellowes, and yeah, it's more about the
05:07three-and-a-half hours we have left, more about the ones, as you say, we brought you
05:12earlier and just those getting over the dotted line with the announcements.
05:16Yeah, like you said, we're expecting the Alex Palmer deal to go through in the coming hours,
05:21and the Tamir Bani one. The other one that's up in the air at the moment, Coxey, is the
05:25Carlin Grant talk, the Carlin Grant exit talk. Obviously, I don't want to say falling down
05:29the pecking order under Tony Mowbray, but Tony Mowbray come out and said he'd had these
05:33talks with Carlin Grant about him playing on the left, and Mikey Johnson was ahead of
05:36him. That's now coincided with talk over the weekend, and talk today ramping up of a potential
05:43loan exit we mentioned earlier that Derby are interested in. That's been well publicised now.
05:48Do we know any more on that one, or is it a case of waiting and seeing? If it doesn't
05:51go through, he stays, and he's still in the plans moving forward?
05:56The Burnley rumour that we sort of knocked back this morning, who was told at the time,
06:03it's not one that's on in terms of Burnley having a permanent interest. It seems to have
06:07re-emerged in the last couple of hours. Now, it's hard to know in a fluid transfer deadline
06:14day whether that's just sort of old stuff resurfacing that isn't quite accurate, or
06:19genuinely it's moved on. I think it's interesting, isn't it, because we're talking about Burnley
06:25in one hand, who are obviously fighting for automatics. On the other hand, we mentioned
06:29that the loan and a club like Derby who are seriously struggling at the other end. So,
06:34I think I saw amongst just fan chatter really, and certainly fan chatter from South Wales,
06:40I saw Cardiff mentioned earlier on the back of obviously a successful loan there before,
06:45and they're struggling, and why don't Cardiff go back in, was what their supporters were saying.
06:51And it kind of makes sense, doesn't it? If you're rivals elsewhere in a championship,
06:55you're seeing Carlin Grant's potentially available, certainly for a loan, after the
07:00first half of the season he's had. It's a bit of a surprise to me they wouldn't be all over that.
07:06No, it remains to be seen. I haven't heard anything more concrete on it. Like we said
07:11earlier really, I think either is understandable and acceptable really. I think if Carlin Grant
07:17remains in situ, he remains a very good viable option who is having a great season, and I don't
07:24see that he's just been told by Tony Mowbray that he's not going to feature again this season. That
07:29just won't have happened. He'll be a viable squad option that just, as you say, is just
07:34a rung or two or three further down the pecking order than he was a month or so ago. But it
07:41doesn't take much, does it? Just a drop in form, injury, whatever, for him to be back near that 11,
07:48in that 11. Obviously Will Lancashire signed on loan from Spurs last Friday, playing one of those
07:55front two positions as Albion line-up formation-wise at the moment. You've mentioned
08:02Tama Banning, who's checking in from Denmark. He's an attack-minded midfielder,
08:11versatile, number 10 around that area. So again, in and around the positions Grant plays in,
08:16which will have done nothing for his pecking order. But I think it's one at the minute,
08:21at this stage of the window of the night, where either or. If Grant moves out on loan and Albion
08:27saves some, makes a saving on the salary, yeah, OK. But are they going to be able to dip in to be
08:33able to use that at this stage of the night? Or does the saving go towards a player they've bought
08:39in or just the pot generally? But no, you know, Grant's staying for depth, for competition,
08:45to push others on. I'm sure he wants to play, of course he wants to play.
08:48Look, but him staying is fine, I think, for the baggies and, you know,
08:53strengthens their forward positions for the last, what, three, four months of the season.