West Bromwich Albion are the latest Premier League team to be linked with a move for Sampdoria’s Serie A stopper Omar Colley, via SampNews24.
Slaven Bilic’s side might have finished second in the Championship last season, securing automatic promotion to the Premier League, but the job is only half done.
No one in West Brom’s squad scored more than ten times during a gruelling 46-game season while, at the other end, a tendency to concede sloppy goals, particularly from set-pieces, threatened to wreck their hopes of a return to the Big Time.
Cedric Kipre has already arrived after a fine season at Wigan Athletic but, according to reports in Italy, the Baggies have now set their sights on another man-mountain of a centre-half intended to solve their Achilles heel.
Colley, a 6ft 3ins Gambia international, has established himself as one of the finest defenders in Serie A, shining in one of Europe’s biggest leagues at last after spells in Finland, Sweden and Belgium.
Yet the 27-year-old, who has also been linked with West Ham, Celtic, Newcastle, Southampton and Burnley, will not come cheap.
Speaking to SampNews24 this week, Sampdoria’s madcap president Massimo Ferrero compared the Colley situation to that of Napoli star Kalidou Koulibaly.
The 2020 Coppa Italia champions are refusing to sell Koulibaly for less than £90 million.
“Why should I give him away? Do you know how much (Napoli owner) De Laurentiis is asking for the sale of Koulibaly?” Ferrero said.
Corriere dello Sport does suggest, however, that £14 million could be enough to get the deal done.
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