This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
West Bromwich Albion boss Slaven Bilic has hailed Matheus Pereira as a bargain, and he could well secure him on a permanent deal as soon as January.
That’s even despite not yet meeting certain clauses within his loan deal, which comes as a major boost to the Baggies’ promotion hopes.
What’s he said?
Previous reports have stated that the club can make the Brazilian one of their own if they either return to the promised land of the Premier League or if he makes a certain number of appearances before the end of the season.
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But BirminghamLive now believe Albion can secure the enigmatic attacking midfielder regardless of those clauses.
The Croatian boss would need to stump up a further £8.25m to do so, but that seems somewhat likely given his comments this weekend.
Speaking about his deadline day signing, Bilic said:
“Pereira is a bargain anyway. I don’t know if it is £9m – I’m only head coach here, you know.
“But still it’s early days. He has to stay focused and set the standards for him, to lift the bar up. He sometimes likes too much sexy things. But is he good? Yes, he’s good. Very good, I love him, but he has to be even more ruthless.
“Pereira is in the gym every day after the training on a bike.
“Nobody would expect that from a Brazilian No.10. He does it every day in the gym. Every day.”
Major boost
Pereira has made a stunning impact since arriving at the eleventh hour in the summer.
So far this season he has scored three times while laying on five assists, per WhoScored.
At £8.25m, he would quite rightly be a bargain, which is only put in perspective when you compare him to Oliver Burke.
The Scot joined the Hawthorns for £15m back in 2017, and in return, Albion have received just the one goal from 24 appearances before shipping him out on loan again this campaign.
West Brom are getting over double the returns for just over half the price.
Keeping hold of him permanently will also, of course, bolster their chances of returning to the top-flight as he’s clearly a massive part of their attacking prowess as seen by the figures mentioned above.
It seems increasingly likely that Pereira will be secured permanently in the near future.