Everything was going swimmingly for West Brom this season.
The Baggies sat six points clear of third place with just nine games to go, and it looked as though they were going to wrap up promotion in the coming weeks.
However, that plan has been scuppered by the suspension of professional football in England until at least April 3rd.
The key thing to note here is that the FA are set to review things in early April, in no way does that signify a return to action for any of the teams in the EFL or the Premier League. If the Government’s predictions on the ongoing pandemic are correct, football isn’t likely to be back until a much later date.
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The official action plan put out from the Government states that up to one-fifth of the country’s workforce could be absent from work during the peak of the virus, and if that comes to fruition, it’s highly unlikely that football will be back for the foreseeable future.
The longer the delay is, the more questions are raised, and West Brom are one club that have to consider the future of one of their key men.
Indeed, Hal Robson-Kanu’s contract expires at the end of June, and if the season is extended beyond that point, the Baggies could have to conclude their campaign without their top scorer.
Football London recently spoke to an agent about the potential consequences of the delay in terms of contract expiries.
“I can’t see that anything could legally override players from saying ‘I’m not staying beyond 30th June.’ Or clubs from saying ‘We don’t want this guy after 30th June,'” they said.
Of course, there’s every chance that they could offer him an extension, but this is unprecedented territory in that the Welshman would hold a lot of power in negotiations if the campaign still has a fair few weeks to go. That could lead to Albion paying him more than they would have originally liked.
Things will hopefully become clearer in weeks to come, but as it stands, Robson-Kanu’s contract is up on the 30th of June, and beyond that date he’s free to sign for any team he likes.
In other news, West Brom could have a future star on their hands.