‘Confident’ - Everton expected to beat Crystal Palace to signature of £15m West Brom star this summer
Premier League side Everton are closing in on one of West Brom’s prize assets
Everton are on course to rub further salts into the wounds of West Brom fans by making a move for highly-rated playmaker Tom Fellows this summer.
The Baggies are increasingly unlikely to finish inside the Championship play-off places after falling to their fourth defeat in five matches last time out against Coventry City, leaving them with just a 5% chance of qualifying for the play-offs, according to Opta.
West Brom’s poor recent form leaves them six points away from the play-offs with three games to spare, and means they are now vulnerable to losing some of their prized assets to Premier League clubs including Fellows, who has enjoyed a stellar campaign at the Hawthorns.
Everton ‘confident’ they can finally land Tom Fellows
Everton are set to raise the curtain on a new era at the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium with the signing of Tom Fellows, according to reports from TBR Football. The outlet has revealed that the Toffees are confident of getting the deal done this summer after expressing a strong interest in the Solihull-born winger in the January transfer window.
Everton came close to a deal for the West Brom star in the winter and it’s widely reported that the lack of time was the main contributing factor behind the deal falling through, in a move which was met with great optimism by West Brom’s fans due to the 21-year-old’s important role in the first half of the season. David Moyes, however, has time on his side this summer and is determined to get a move over the line, with a £15m move being mooted as opposed to the £12m that was initially quoted in January.
Why Everton are interested in Tom Fellows
Tom Fellows has been on the books at West Brom since joining the under-10s and made his debut in August 2021 under Valérien Ismaël after proving his class at reserve level. He enjoyed a productive loan spell at Crawley Town, where he racked up 38 appearances and despite failing to score showed enough promise to break into the first team picture at the Hawthorns last season.
Fellows registered four goals and three assists from 35 league games to help his team to the play-offs but has this term added greater end product to his game with two goals and 13 assists, which is the most set ups of any player in the league alongside Portsmouth’s Josh Murphy. The 21-year-old is one of the best creative players in the Championship and someone ready to make the jump into the Premier League where he would fit David Moyes’ style of having a direct, pacey winger that can cross the ball into the box with accuracy.
“He would be the perfect fit for Moyes,” Bailey exclusively told TBR Football. “In terms of style of play, he’s similar to Ben Doak and Dan James. He’s also similar to Stewart Downing, and could potentially become a Jarrod Bowen-type player.”
His loss would come as a huge setback to West Brom’s promotion hopes next term but would offer Mowbray a boost on the transfer front if he can reinvest the money on new recruits to mould the team in his image.