00:00Brandon Tomasante is a player who has scored a couple of times in pre-season, but there
00:13has been some sort of loose links earlier this week. Southampton might be interested
00:18in signing the Albion forward after the departure of Shea Adams to Torino. They're sort of being
00:26credited with interest. It throws up an interesting debate. A few weeks ago we talked about Grady
00:32Deangana and the fact that if a bid came in for him this summer, would Albion accept it
00:37with only one year left on his contract? And Brandon Tomasante, even though he's someone
00:43who we haven't really spoken about in this sort of vein in the past, is someone who falls
00:48into that category. He's got one year left on his contract and there's a Premier League
00:53club being credited with interest now. If that interest becomes concrete and Southampton
00:58come up with a relatively decent bid, would it be financial business sense for Tomasante
01:06to move on? Or is it more beneficial for Albion, given the striker situation, for them to maybe
01:13offer him a new contract and for him to stay at the Hortons?
01:17Yeah, I would say, Jonny, I mean, I'll answer you specifically, but I would say it's potentially
01:22dependent on what that offer is for Tomasante. We said off-air, didn't we, just before going
01:31on here? And I'll get into it. You can kind of make arguments in good cases either way
01:35with Brandon, I think. If a bid Albion deemed sort of worthwhile comes, yeah, as you mentioned,
01:44one year left, you can make a good financial business case for accepting that and allowing
01:50him to progress if it's a good club coming in or whatever. But on the other side of it,
01:56the striking situation, Albion aren't entirely blessed up top at the moment, are they? They've
02:02got sort of three senior recognised strikers in, fitness question marked by a couple of
02:07them really, certainly DK out for a number of months still. So in that regard, Brandon
02:14Tomasante a regular, he scored goals for Albion, you're kind of feeling like he's probably
02:19needed, you know, probably needed too much to move him on. And that's sort of why I say
02:23it's bid dependent, offer dependent. The other thing I'd mention is Brandon Tomasante's a
02:27good age in terms of where he's at in his career. He's relatively young still. I think
02:32he's 25, I think I'm right in saying. Certainly no older than 24, 25. And in terms of that,
02:40he's got, just having a look, yeah, he's 25. And he's got a long way to go, I think, in
02:44terms of, you know, a bit of a late bloomer from coming from the level he came at, obviously
02:49League Two, had a couple of seasons now at the Championship and probably still got a
02:52ceiling to climb and develop and reach. So you can make that good case about him being
02:58a good age, still with a bit more potential to unlock, being a sort of regular and important
03:03player for Albion to look at a new deal. We don't want to be getting into this season,
03:09you know, to the new year and Brandon Tomasante's out of contract in the summer and, you know,
03:15free to whatever clubs come and have a look. So that's what makes you think if an offer
03:20of decent value comes this summer from wherever really. Now we know, you know, previously
03:24there's been interest in Tomasante. I think that to Stoke coming in with a couple of offers
03:29a year ago that Albion rejected out of hand pretty quickly, really. They were low value
03:34from memory, maybe two, two and a half million and nowhere near what Albion thought. And
03:39let's remember 12 months ago, this was an Albion that really needed to sell players
03:42and raise money, really seriously needed it, obviously, prior to the takeover, financial,
03:47big financial concerns. They don't have that right now. They have books still to balance,
03:52but there's not that, as we've spoken about before with Okoye Kushlu, who is still expected
03:59to exit really. There are still work to be done financially, but it's not an absolute
04:06desperation to sell and raise money. You know, it's just almost take each player's
04:09case as it comes. Okoye Kushlu is in the same boat as Tomasante, aren't they, you know,
04:14regards contract next year and being out of contract. But one's 30, as we know. And as
04:19I mentioned with Tomasante, one's 25. And a key regular player for Carlos Corbijn, who
04:23I imagine would like to continue working with him, sort of try and unlock what else there
04:29can be to help him score more goals. We know he said himself, hasn't he, this pre-season
04:33he gave an interview, I think, talking about himself being his own biggest critic and seeing
04:37criticism of him missing chances and the chance to score more goals. So hopefully there's
04:44a way to go for Tomasante. We know there's Josh Madger there, who by all accounts is
04:47looking sharp this pre-season, but there's big question marks next to his sort of fitness
04:52with how his first season went. So it will be interesting to see if Southampton firm
04:56up that sort of interest. He's kind of looking at it thinking, is Brandon Tomasante ready
05:01to be a Premier League striker? Not 100% sure on that. Yeah, maybe he'll be down there
05:06as third or fourth choice. And you could see value if Southampton then get relegated, he'll
05:09be there to help them fire in the championship. So perhaps it does make sense from a point
05:15of view at St Mary's. But we'll see whether any other sort of interest comes in concrete
05:20in him and it'll give Albin a decision to make, certainly just because of the contract
05:24status of between now and next year. And if they decide they want something, then you
05:29have to think that they'll be looking at sort of new deal talks.
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