Lewis Cox and Jonny Drury discuss reported interest in Brandon Thomas-Asante and look at what it would take for Albion to sell the striker.
BTA has been Albion's top scorer for the last two seasons - and has this week been linked with a possible move to Southampton.
With one year left on his contract, Lewis and Jonny discuss what it would take for Albion to accept an offer, and whether the striker should be offered a new deal with his 12 months left on his current contract.
BTA has been Albion's top scorer for the last two seasons - and has this week been linked with a possible move to Southampton.
With one year left on his contract, Lewis and Jonny discuss what it would take for Albion to accept an offer, and whether the striker should be offered a new deal with his 12 months left on his current contract.
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00:00Brandon Tomasante is a player who has scored a couple of times in pre-season, but there
00:13has been some sort of loose links earlier this week. Southampton might be interested
00:18in signing the Albion forward after the departure of Shea Adams to Torino. They're sort of being
00:26credited with interest. It throws up an interesting debate. A few weeks ago we talked about Grady
00:32Deangana and the fact that if a bid came in for him this summer, would Albion accept it
00:37with only one year left on his contract? And Brandon Tomasante, even though he's someone
00:43who we haven't really spoken about in this sort of vein in the past, is someone who falls
00:48into that category. He's got one year left on his contract and there's a Premier League
00:53club being credited with interest now. If that interest becomes concrete and Southampton
00:58come up with a relatively decent bid, would it be financial business sense for Tomasante
01:06to move on? Or is it more beneficial for Albion, given the striker situation, for them to maybe
01:13offer him a new contract and for him to stay at the Hortons?
01:17Yeah, I would say, Jonny, I mean, I'll answer you specifically, but I would say it's potentially
01:22dependent on what that offer is for Tomasante. We said off-air, didn't we, just before going
01:31on here? And I'll get into it. You can kind of make arguments in good cases either way
01:35with Brandon, I think. If a bid Albion deemed sort of worthwhile comes, yeah, as you mentioned,
01:44one year left, you can make a good financial business case for accepting that and allowing
01:50him to progress if it's a good club coming in or whatever. But on the other side of it,
01:56the striking situation, Albion aren't entirely blessed up top at the moment, are they? They've
02:02got sort of three senior recognised strikers in, fitness question marked by a couple of
02:07them really, certainly DK out for a number of months still. So in that regard, Brandon
02:14Tomasante a regular, he scored goals for Albion, you're kind of feeling like he's probably
02:19needed, you know, probably needed too much to move him on. And that's sort of why I say
02:23it's bid dependent, offer dependent. The other thing I'd mention is Brandon Tomasante's a
02:27good age in terms of where he's at in his career. He's relatively young still. I think
02:32he's 25, I think I'm right in saying. Certainly no older than 24, 25. And in terms of that,
02:40he's got, just having a look, yeah, he's 25. And he's got a long way to go, I think, in
02:44terms of, you know, a bit of a late bloomer from coming from the level he came at, obviously
02:49League Two, had a couple of seasons now at the Championship and probably still got a
02:52ceiling to climb and develop and reach. So you can make that good case about him being
02:58a good age, still with a bit more potential to unlock, being a sort of regular and important
03:03player for Albion to look at a new deal. We don't want to be getting into this season,
03:09you know, to the new year and Brandon Tomasante's out of contract in the summer and, you know,
03:15free to whatever clubs come and have a look. So that's what makes you think if an offer
03:20of decent value comes this summer from wherever really. Now we know, you know, previously
03:24there's been interest in Tomasante. I think that to Stoke coming in with a couple of offers
03:29a year ago that Albion rejected out of hand pretty quickly, really. They were low value
03:34from memory, maybe two, two and a half million and nowhere near what Albion thought. And
03:39let's remember 12 months ago, this was an Albion that really needed to sell players
03:42and raise money, really seriously needed it, obviously, prior to the takeover, financial,
03:47big financial concerns. They don't have that right now. They have books still to balance,
03:52but there's not that, as we've spoken about before with Okoye Kushlu, who is still expected
03:59to exit really. There are still work to be done financially, but it's not an absolute
04:06desperation to sell and raise money. You know, it's just almost take each player's
04:09case as it comes. Okoye Kushlu is in the same boat as Tomasante, aren't they, you know,
04:14regards contract next year and being out of contract. But one's 30, as we know. And as
04:19I mentioned with Tomasante, one's 25. And a key regular player for Carlos Corbijn, who
04:23I imagine would like to continue working with him, sort of try and unlock what else there
04:29can be to help him score more goals. We know he said himself, hasn't he, this pre-season
04:33he gave an interview, I think, talking about himself being his own biggest critic and seeing
04:37criticism of him missing chances and the chance to score more goals. So hopefully there's
04:44a way to go for Tomasante. We know there's Josh Madger there, who by all accounts is
04:47looking sharp this pre-season, but there's big question marks next to his sort of fitness
04:52with how his first season went. So it will be interesting to see if Southampton firm
04:56up that sort of interest. He's kind of looking at it thinking, is Brandon Tomasante ready
05:01to be a Premier League striker? Not 100% sure on that. Yeah, maybe he'll be down there
05:06as third or fourth choice. And you could see value if Southampton then get relegated, he'll
05:09be there to help them fire in the championship. So perhaps it does make sense from a point
05:15of view at St Mary's. But we'll see whether any other sort of interest comes in concrete
05:20in him and it'll give Albin a decision to make, certainly just because of the contract
05:24status of between now and next year. And if they decide they want something, then you
05:29have to think that they'll be looking at sort of new deal talks.