Owen Hargreaves May Be West Brom Bound After Opening Talks

Former Manchester United player and the perennially injured Owen Hargreaves is in talks with West Bromwich Albion on a move back to the Premier League, according to reports. England international Hargreaves was released last season by United after only managing 27 games for them over four years.

Hargreaves may be Baggies bound

West Brom’s sporting and technical director, Dan Ashworth, told the club’s official website that the signing of Hargreaves would be an extremely beneficial one provided the player managed to stay fit over the course of the season. He said-

“We have been in talks with Owen,”

“He’s based over in the United States at the moment so we might try to get to meet him in the next week or so and see if he would consider coming to us.

“If Owen is fit to play Premier League football, it is a no-brainer.”

He admitted to reservations based on the player’s injury record, but said that he had proved himself both at Man United and Bayern Munich and the Baggies would have managed a coup if the player’s luck held out injury-wise.

He said-

“Make no mistake, Owen Hargreaves is a fantastic player. He’s shown he’s a top, top player from his England, Manchester United and Bayern Munich days.

“Obviously, Owen has had a few medical issues over the last few years. But we would be absolutely delighted to get a fit Owen Hargreaves.

“That would be a wonderful signing for us.”

Ashworth numbered out three things to West Brom’s advantage- namely, that they were in the Premier League, that they had a competent medical team and that they were the first club to make contact with Hargreaves over a potential deal ahead of competitors like Leicester City.

“The three things we’ve got going for us are: one, we’re in the Premier League, which is attractive in itself; the second thing is we’ve got a fantastic medical team. We had an unbelievable hit-rate last season in terms of player availability,”

“I think that’s attractive to Owen, that we’ve got a proven track record in the last couple of years of maintaining players and keeping them out on the pitch, which is the most important thing.

“Thirdly, we were the first club to contact him. He’s told me that, and he appreciates that.

“I’d like to think we’ve got a chance – but Owen has plenty of other options as well.”

It remains to be seen whether Hargreaves finally chooses to come the Baggies’ way and if his fitness record finally sorts itself out. Stay tuned for more in this regard.