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West Bromwich Albion should continue to pursue a move for Levante winger Kareem Tunde this summer.

West Bromwich Albion have been linked with a move for Levante winger Kareem Tunde – and it is a move that our FLW Fan Pundit believes would both fit the mould of their recruitment model this summer and also help to fix an issue with their squad.

Having finished last season extremely well under the management of James Morrison, there is an optimism in the midlands that West Brom will be able to challenge for the top eight and the expanded play-off spots last season.

A relegation battle last year is unlikely to be repeated given the size of the club and the strength of their squad but some additions still do seemingly need to be made, especially out-wide.

That is perhaps why it even more surprising that Derby County are reportedly keen on forward Mikey Johnston – with West Brom keen for wide players, which Tunde is.

Albion have already managed to bring in versatile forward Jimmy-Jay Morgan this summer as well as striker Barney Stewart, goalkeeper Matt Ingram, full-backs Conor Townsend and Nolan Galves and midfielders Felix Horn Myhre and Rabby Nzingoula – but it looks set to be a busy final week of the window at The Hawthorns.

Kareem Tunde would help key area of West Brom squad

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James Morrison has begun this season playing quite a narrow 4-2-3-1 or even a 4-2-2-2 system, and that has brought about success with The Baggies beginning their campaign with a couple of impressive victories.

After hammering Rotherham United by four goals to one in the first round of the EFL Cup, Albion have since gone on to beat fellow likely promotion hopefuls Norwich City and then Burnley in their opening couple of games of the Championship season.

Despite the success of their current system, it is perhaps unsustainable to go through the campaign without adding to their stocks out-wide and that is why FLW’s West Brom Fan Pundit Callum Burgess would welcome the signing of Tunde.

Callum says: “It doesn’t follow the trend of our other attacking signings so far with Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Barney Stewart both young forwards that we have brought to the club so far after letting go (Josh) Maja, (Daryl) Dike and (Jed) Wallace.

“Hopefully this turns out to be another gem for us, you’d imagine, having only made his senior debut for Levante in December last year.

“He did make an assist for them in what was a tough campaign for them it seems, in which they just about avoided relegation so clearly difficult circumstances for him but hopefully there will have been something our scouting team liked about him.

“Wingers are an area we are looking to improve on and we’ve only got Mikey Johnston and Oliver Bostock out on those wings, and Morrison has made it clear he wanted more options out-wide, even though the 4-2-2-2 system he as gone for has been successful so far.

“It does show how flexible he wants to be with his squad and, hopefully if he does join, he turns out to be a good signing for us.”

Real Madrid example shows West Brom are shopping in the right area

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Following their promotion back to La Liga, Levante struggled in the first half of last season and appeared set for an immediate return to the second-tier in Spain.

However, following the appointment of former Dunkerque and Nantes boss Luis Castro, the Valencians turned things around in the second half of the season with Tunde among a glut of young players who were key to the success.

The headline emergence was that of striker Carlos Espi, who has since gone on to be poached by Real Madrid and scored Los Blancos’ late winner in their opening game of the season away at Espanyol at the weekend.

Espi was not on his own, though, with Kareem Tunde also beginning to flourish under the impressive management of Castro, who has proven both at Dunkerque and now at Levante to be excellent at developing young talent.

Levante’s squad is already much weaker this time around so Tunde is expected to actually be even more of a prominent figure and a key man for them this season, having featured off the bench in their opener against Espanyol.

As a result, it would therefore surely be quite the coup for West Brom to poach someone who was playing regularly for a team that collected 23 points from their final 13 games in La Liga last season.