The Udinese attacker has been linked with the Premier League for some time and Stoke and West Brom appear to be at the front of the queue.
With West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City mired in the nether zone between Europa League qualification and mid-table mediocrity, you wonder what the future holds for the respective sides of Tony Pulis and Mark Hughes.
The Baggies are eighth and on track for their finest ever Premier League points haul while Stoke are, of course, ninth, the position they have finished in for each of the last three seasons. The fans will be content but there’s an itch, a desire to push on and close the gap to seventh and the final Europa League spot.
Perhaps Jakub Jankto could help West Brom and Stoke follow in the footsteps of Southampton and West Ham by earning a place in Europe’s second tier competition, Tuttomercatoweb reports.
Both The Saints and The Hammers finished in the top six in recent seasons by virtue of an astute scouting system enabling them to pick up talented youngsters on the relative cheap a la Manuel Lanzini, Pedro Obiang, Dusan Tadic and Virgin Van Dyke.
And, according to Tuttomercatoweb, Stoke and West Brom have visited Udinese to check on the progress of the 21-year-old winger enjoying an impressive breakthrough campaign in Serie A after spending last season on loan at Ascoli.
An intelligent yet direct and instinctive attacker, Jankto has rather flown under the radar in an Udinese team lying in mid-table no-man’s land but it would have been impossible not to notice his stand-out performance against an albeit doomed Pescara side at the weekend.
Scoring one and setting up two more in a Man of the Match display, the Czech attacker was the inspiration for a 3-1 away win while demonstrating an end product to go with his rapid pace.
The Guardian reported that both Bournemouth and Leicester City were interested in the summer while Arsenal have scouted him extensively in the past. Having recently renewed his contract, however, Jankto could cost Stoke or West Brom more than his initial £8 million asking price.
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