Former Premier League manager Tony Pulis has revealed that West Brom were interested in signing both Harry Maguire and Virgil van Dijk during his time with the Baggies.
The Welsh manager was in charge at the Hawthorns between 2015 and 2017 and enjoyed a period of success after overseeing successful transfers such as Darren Fletcher and Jonny Evans from Manchester United.
But on a podcast, Pulis has explained that there were a number of transfer targets that didn’t materialise.
Two include Maguire and Van Dijk, who would have been two very shrewd signings for the Baggies at the time – considering how the two players are considered among the Premier League’s most expensive.
Speaking on the Baggies Broadcast (36 minutes in), Pulis said (quoted by West Brom News): “John Williams had said Maguire, but I thought Jonny Evans was better than Maguire and they’ll argue that Maguire went to Leicester and then got sold for an absolute fortune. But I thought Jonny was better than Maguire.
“Jonathan Gould had played at Celtic and Gouldy had mentioned him [van Dijk] on numerous occasions so that was on the scouting network but whether we thought he was going to be too much or too expensive I honestly don’t know. He was definitely one that was brought up.”
I don’t think it was a bad shout saying Evans was a better recruit than Maguire, but definitely not when you see how much Leicester City pocketed off United for his signature. 10-years on, the two of them are at Old Trafford together which beggars belief on many levels.
The same applies to Southampton when Liverpool signed Van Dijk.
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