Reading FC ‘poised’ to sign unwanted West Brom goalkeeper

The 34-year-old made 16 appearances for the Baggies last season but is not in Carlos Corberan’s plans at the Hawthorns.

Still with time remaining on his deal in the Midlands, it is expected that the Championship side will cut this short to enable the Royals to pick him

Still with time remaining on his deal in the Midlands, it is expected that the Championship side will cut this short to enable the Royals to pick him up on a free.

Vastly experienced with over 350 EFL appearances, the former Brentford and Fulham regular won promotion from the third tier with the Bees in 2014.

Since departing Craven Cottage in 2018, the stopper has played 41 games in five years for Premier League Brighton and Hove Albion as well as West Brom.

First broken by Football Insider’s Peter O’Rourke, the Reading Chronicle now understand that a deal is very close to being completed with matches coming thick and fast at the start of the campaign.

This news comes just days after BBC Radio Berkshire presenter, Tim Dellor, linked the club to former Manchester United keeper Joel Pereira.

With three first-team goalkeepers already on the books, it must signal the departure of at least one of Dean Bouzanis, Coniah Boyce-Clarke or Jokull Andresson.

Boyce-Clarke, who was on the bench for the opening day defeat to Peterborough United on Saturday, is still only on a week-to-week contract.

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We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive West Brom columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns...

Dan Plumley has insisted that the EFL will be looking at Fred Chesnais’ links to Crypto after he was linked with a takeover of West Brom.

The Daily Mail reported on 25 July that the French Crypto investor is in talks over a £60million takeover of the club and all of its assets, including The Hawthorns.

The finance expert admitted that the EFL are scrutinising takeovers more nowadays, with their fit and proper test potentially changing very soon.

 

“It will be looked at for sure,” he exclusively told West Brom News.

“Another thing to point out is what is happening with the fit and proper person test at the minute, historically we’ve seen it not really covering a lot of ground.

“It looks at criminal records and convictions, and proof of funds is all you need, the EFL are now scrutinising that in more detail nowadays. Certainly, with some of the more recent takeovers, they are looking at that in much more detail and we’ve probably got changes coming to those regulations as well, so that will factor into the mix.

“It will be looked at because deals are being scrutinised more and more, and because Crypto is still an unregulated market and there is no governance around it more generally, then you’d expect the EFL to be looking at that in great detail.

“Because it is brand new and we haven’t seen anything prior to that, there won’t be anything that links that type of business to that fit and proper test.”