When Barcelona decided to sign Martin Braithwaite from Levante, more than one eyebrow was raised around the footballing world.
In a desperate situation, the Catalans needed to sign a forward for a limited fee, and with the Dane’s release clause at around £16m, he was a perfect fit.
However, his use was always going to be limited, and with just five appearances in all competitions under Ronald Koeman, an exit in January seems the most likely, which is where West Bromwich Albion come in.
The Baggies currently sit 18th in the league with six goals scored (with £15m signing Karlan Grant getting just one of those), and unless something changes in the coming weeks and months, Slaven Bilić’s men will find themselves in a much unwanted relegation battle.
Sport in Spain look at the forward’s situation, and explain there are three options for Braithwaite in January in the shape of West Ham, Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion.
They then add Braithwaite’s entourage ‘is open to negotiating his departure’, having promised to do so ‘when the Dane signed for Barça’ because they ‘knew he came as an emergency due to injuries and will keep their word to collaborate if the club so wishes’.
It’s explained the La Liga side ‘would be willing to part with the player for about €15m’, which is described as an ‘affordable figure for English clubs in need of a goal’.
Furthermore, ‘Braithwaite also knows he needs minutes to have more chances of going to the Euros with the Denmark team’.
An exit would be a win-win-win for all parties (there’s three in play here), and it all rests on West Brom digging down the back of the couch for the needed money.
Whether they would be prepared to meet that figure remains to be seen, but when your top scorer in the league after eight games is your left-winger after while your big money striker has found the back of the net the same amount of times as one of your centre-backs, signing an extra goalscorer can’t really make things worse.
