West Brom must beat former boss Tony Pulis to 13-assist attacking midfielder

According to TEAMtalk, West Brom and Middlesbrough are both battling to sign Queens Park Rangers’ attacking midfielder Luke Freeman.

What’s the story?

Having recently added Leicester winger Harvey Barnes to his squad, West Brom boss Darren Moore has now been linked with QPR-man Freeman in an attempt to inject some creativity to a Baggies side hoping to bounce straight back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Valued at just £2.7m by Transfermarkt, the 26-year-old scored five goals in the Championship last season but also, more importantly for his position, created 13 assists as his side finished in a disappointing 16th place.

The former England U17 international signed for QPR in January 2017 for just £315,ooo. However, the club recently accepted a transfer ban for the January 2019 window following their overspending that saw them gain promotion to the Premier League in the 2013/14 season, this means that any deal for Freeman would have to be concluded soon in order to give the R’s time to find a replacement.

Battle for his signature

As reported by TEAMtalk, Moore will have to battle the Baggies’ former boss Tony Pulis, now manager of Middlesbrough, to sign Freeman this summer.

Pulis has so far signed just Aden Flint from Bristol City and fellow centre-back Paddy McNair from Sunderland this summer and is clearly also interested in the QPR midfielder for his creative qualities.

For Freeman though, he would be far better off linking up with Moore at West Brom to play a more attacking, free-flowing style of football than Pulis offers. At just 5ft 9in he is hardly the big and strong midfielder that Pulis usually prefers and he could certainly link well with Jay Rodriguez to help fire West Brom back to the Premier League.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2NXgqXd