West Brom planning for Championship with pursuit of Foxes man

So far during this transfer window West Brom have interspersed some shrewd signings with a whole heap of strange ones and look intent on continuing their jaunt down Crazy Crescent with their latest pursuit.

Starting with the appointment of a manager who’s never taken charge of a match in the top-flight, the head scratching continued when they forked out a club-record fee for Nigerian striker Brown Ideye, despite Alan Irvine never watching him play live.

Other captures, like those of Chris Baird and Giorgos Samaras, smack of the kind of deals sides make in preparation for a difficult season, signings that are likely to stick around should the club suffer relegation to the Championship.

As a one-club man with Leicester City, Andy King, live Irvine, had never experienced Premier League football before the start of this season, yet West Brom are among the three top-flight clubs chasing his signature.

Should they get him, ahead of Sunderland and QPR, West Brom would surely be taking another step towards their consolidation plans should they be relegated, a hardship that’s priced up as a 9/5 possibility with Ladbrokes.

King has spent all bar two of his eight seasons as a professional in the Championship and has only once come close to setting it alight when he scored 15 league goals in 2010/11.

In his time with the Foxes, King has become the club’s highest scoring midfielder ever. However, it’s hard to see him providing more of a goal threat in the Baggies midfield than Stephane Sessegnon, James Morrison or Craig Gardner.

An important part of Nigel Pearson’s Leicester set-up, where King is the star midfielder, the Welshman wouldn’t enjoy such a position at the Hawthorns, making the whole transfer seem really rather pointless for all parties.

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