Ismael: No appeal for Darn but I’m all right for options...
VALERIEN Ismael insists West Bromwich Albion have ‘good options’ to replace Darnell Furlong after electing not to appeal the defender’s red card.
Furlong has started all of Albion’s 15 Championship games this season at right wing-back but his ever-present run came to an end last night (Wednesday) against Hull City.
Ismael was remaining tightlipped, but he’s confident a solution has been found.
“We have options” said Ismael. “We have good options. It’s important that the player knows that position, knows the principles and knows exactly what he has to do.
“This is the most important thing of all.”
Furlong was controversially sent off for denying Fulham a goalscoring opportunity in Albion’s 3-0 defeat on Saturday.
Albion’s backroom team considered appealing the decision, but Ismael was advised against it.
He said: “We didn’t appeal. I had experience last season with Alex Mowatt at Barnsley, it was a similar situation.
“But we had some information that it won’t be successful so we didn’t appeal.”
Mowatt was sat in the stands alongside Furlong at The Hawthorns for Hull having missed the past three games due to injury.
The former Leeds and Barnsley midfielder isn’t going to feature in either of Albion’s next two games, meaning he’ll miss the match with Middlesbrough on Saturday as well.
“He is training, he is on the pitch at the minute,” Ismael added.
“He is going in the right direction but we won’t take any risks with him before the international break.
“I hope that he can come back after the international break. The last few days he has been on the training pitch, we hope we can build up his performance and his fitness.”
Albion will not receive a penny from Barcelona for Aston Villa striker Louie Barry, it has been reported.
The Baggies complained to FIFA after Barry left for the Catalan giants’ Academy in 2019, claiming €130,000 in ‘training compensation’.
Barry returned to West Midlands just six months later to join Villa, who paid an initial £1million to Barcelona. With add-ons, the fee could rise to £3million.
But it has emerged that Albion will see none of that after their compensation
claim failed. The Athletic reports that West Brom told a judge from a sub-committee of FIFA’s dispute resolution chamber that they offered Barry a scholarship agreement on February 13, 2017, and it was accepted by his parents a week later when their son was 13.
However, the judge ruled in favour of Barcelona, concluding that Albion had not made a ‘binding offer’ to Barry in the summer of 2019, when he turned 16 and when his scholarship would have begun.