West Brom told to take Tom Fellows action after Torbjorn Heggem developments | OneFootball

West Bromwich Albion have been urged to tie Tom Fellows down to a longer contract following the £10 million sale of Torbjorn Heggem to Bologna.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Championship promotion-chasers West Bromwich Albion have been urged to do all they can to keep Tom Fellows at the club following the sale of Torbjorn Heggem to Italian club Bologna for a reported £10 million.

Albion have started their 2025-26 season strongly, with wins against Blackburn Rovers and Wrexham, but with two weeks of the summer transfer window still to run, they are still at risk of losing their best players to other clubs.

But following two straight wins, the value of one of their most highly-rated players has been evident to fans, and our West Brom fan pundit believes that the sale of Heggem could keep Fellows at The Hawthorns for longer.

The sale Torbjorn Heggem makes it easier for West Brom to keep Tom Fellows

Football League World have spoken to our resident West Brom fan pundit, Callum Burgess, and he is optimistic that the sale of Heggem could help to keep Fellows at the club: "The Heggem deal definitely puts Albion in a much better position to be able to demand a bigger fee than previously would have been expected for Fellows and even being able to keep him this summer in general."

Callum is aware of the financial pressures that Championship clubs are under, and that this sale could help the club out in more than one way: "After Heggem's gone for £10 million after signing him for just a couple of hundred thousand pounds, that's definitely going to be a big boost for our PSR situation, whether it's bringing in more players now or being able to keep our best players such as Fellows."

And knowing that West Brom had to make a big player sale to balance their books this summer, Callum believes that most Albion fans would agree that the club have made the right choice: "I think coming into the summer the expectation was that Fellows would be one to move on, but it seems that with all the talk about Albion needing to make a major sale that's instead come in the form of Heggem rather than Fellows, and I think if you did ask Albion fans, they'd probably be inclined to think we'd rather sell Heggem than Fellows."

Callum doesn't believe that Albion should react positively to the sale of Heggem by using this as an opportunity to tie Fellows down to the club on a longer-term contract: "Hopefully, we do offer Fellows a new contract and get him tied down for even longer than his current deal; until the end of next season I believe it is. But obviously Albion are now in a better position to keep players such as Fellows."

With previous PSR issues, West Brom needed a big player sale this summer

As a Championship club who are not in receipt of Premier League parachute payments, West Brom have to watch their spending carefully, and the sale of their higher-profile players does help the club in several different ways.

And interest in Fellows has got caught up with another of the Championship's longer-running summer transfer sagas. Everton had been linked to the winger going back to before this transfer window, but they're also pushing to try and secure the signing of Tyler Dibling from Southampton. In turn, Southampton were reportedly interested in Fellows as a potential replacement for Dibling, should he make the move to Merseyside this summer.

West Brom have been tripped up by PSR before. It's only been just over a year since they were put under an EFL business plan as a result of the actions of the previous owners of the club. Since Torbjorn Heggem only signed for Albion for £600,000 a year ago, selling him on for £10 million represents a significant improvement to the club's balance sheet, and it will certainly reduce the pressure to sell Fellows.

Heggem is a huge loss to the centre of the West Brom central defence, but if moving him on increases the likelihood of keeping Fellows and others at The Hawthorns, West Brom fans will see losing this player as a win.