Anders Lindgaard: A 90 minute Albion career
I was not among the small band of Baggies fans that made the long trek to Norwich City to witness the rather dismal 3-0 defeat in the League Cup last autumn so I missed Anders Lindegaard’s debut. In fact, it looks like I missed his entire Albion career!
Lindegaard was brought in from Manchester United on a “free transfer” as cover for the injured Ben Foster and at the time, it was an entirely sensible move. During the first half of the season, he failed to dislodge the excellent Boaz Myhill and was shipped out to Championship side Preston North End on loan when a fit again Foster was restored to the first team fold.
Obviously the player can see that his first team chances at the Hawthorns are limited and is now looking to make his move to Preston a permanent one, as reported by the Express & Star..
The move has been heavily trailed in the media and I took it for granted that it would happen. It now appears to be another thorny issue in Nicky Hammond’s in tray as the deal has stalled because the three parties can’t find a solution to the second year of the player’s contract.
In short, Lindegaard was given a two-year contract on a wage said to be in the region of £20,000 a week. Unfortunately, this is considerably more than Preston are able to pay and understandably the player reluctant to lose money on the deal. As the selling club, it falls to West Brom to grease the wheels so a player we want to move on can move and depending on what deal is done this will nibble away at the player budget.
Very few fans are going to be overly excited about a third choice keeper, however, the Lindegaard deal should give everyone pause for thought. A simple deal for a backup keeper who was only ever going to be required for six months might require the club to spend £100,000′ s just to get him off the books.
During the summer, fans will be impatient to get new players signed and often use the phrase “no brainer” even to describe deals with very obvious downside risks.
All Premier League football clubs are seen as being awash with money which is true to an extent but Albion are still among the relative paupers and need to manage those funds carefully. The Lindegaard deal wasn’t overly smart.
I do not blame the player, his agent struck the deal in his best interests and nobody put a gun to the club’s head but a little bit more nous on the part of the club would have added a few more pounds to our budget and given us one less issue to resolve this summer.