Kevin Wimmer is apparently not too keen on a move to West Brom because Tony Pulis would like to use him at fullback as well as a central defensive option.
The Times report Wimmer is having cold feet because of West Brom’s fullback intentions.
This is all very reminiscent of what happened with Wimmer and West Ham, just a couple of weeks ago.
To make matters abundantly clear, Wimmer spoke to the Austrian press, explained Tottenham transfer was on the cards, and that he was looking for a central defensive berth somewhere.
On why he turned down West Ham, Wimmer said: “I’d rather play in the centre.”
When considering a €10m transfer approach, a Premier League club may be expected to know things like that, and if West Brom didn’t it’s pretty poor from their perspective.
Wimmer isn’t keen on playing fullback, and to be fair to the player he has a good reason for that. The Austrian wants a national team future and ended up a national laughing stock after playing left back towards the end of last year.
Rewind to last November, and something West Brom should also know about before going for a big money signing. Sport Witness reported: ‘Over the weekend, at least one report in Austria claimed selecting Kevin Wimmer at left back may well cost Marcel Koller his job managing the national side.
Wimmer hasn’t played left back since with FC Koln in Germany’s second tier, and the Tottenham bit part player has been thrown into the position by Koller, with the results bringing much criticism.
The Tottenham defender has been used as a scapegoat, and even whistled by his own supporters when coming off the pitch for Austria. Obviously starting out with the best intentions, Koller has unwillingly thrown Wimmer to the wolves.’
Currently out of the national team picture, the plan for Wimmer is to move somewhere he’ll get games, or least some of them, and be a central defender. The idea of being edged to left back again would probably give the player nightmares, hence turning West Ham down and making that public.
It’s hard to believe Tony Pulis and West Brom would go forward with this, to the point of Wimmer being able to get cold feet, without knowing his aversion to playing fullback. From the actually team selection basis, it’s also difficult to imagine Pulis thinking Wimmer could be a good Premier League fullback option, given the November calamity.
Therefore, either West Brom have been at least slightly incompetent with this, or the reporting has been off. With either the club’s interest exaggerated, and/or the reason for a wobble not being quite as presented.
