Adam Reach: West Brom sign ex-Sheffield Wednesday man; Matheus Pereira speaks out
- Published
Adam Reach could make his Albion debut in their season opener at Bournemouth on Friday
West Bromwich Albion have signed winger Adam Reach on a three-year contract.
The 28-year-old was released by Sheffield Wednesday at the end of last season, having scored 24 goals in 231 appearances for the Yorkshire club.
He is Albion's fourth summer signing following the arrival of new boss Valerien Ismael, after Alex Mowatt, Quevin Castro and Matt Clarke.
However, the Baggies boss expects to lose star asset Matheus Pereira, who says he feels "disrespected" by Ismael.
Pereira 'wants to leave' Baggies
At his first media briefing after taking charge a month ago, Ismael admitted that he was resigned to losing both Pereira and England goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, following speculation over their future.
He said he had told both players that, if they were staying, they had to be "100% committed to the club".
Ismael followed that at the weekend by saying: "I have spoken with Matheus for a few weeks. He was clear he wants to leave. He is not committed to the Championship and not committed to us."
But Pereira has now said on Twitter that he feels "disrespected", that this "degrades" his image and, although he confirms that he does "want to leave", he does not want to "leave through the back door".
"It is extremely wrong for anybody to say I'm 'not committed' since I train and commit as I normally would and give 100% every single day," said Pereira.
"I think it's low to try and degrade my image and my professionalism in this manner. I want to leave, I want to seek new experiences but want to do this in a fair and correct manner."
Ismael has confirmed that Pereira, who has not taken part in any of Albion's pre-season friendlies, will play no part in the Championship opener at Bournemouth on Friday night.
Reach 'has attributes we need'
As for new signing Reach, Ismael said: "He has big quality on the left side, a great mentality and is very dangerous with crosses.
"He has the attributes we need - the mentality, the philosophy, the press and a never-give-up attitude.
"It's important that we have a player who knows the league and knows exactly what's going on."
Reach, who began his career with Middlesbrough, had loan spells at Shrewsbury Town, Bradford City and Preston North End before joining Wednesday in the summer of 2016.
He has a habit of scoring spectacular goals - and scored with a left-foot shot into the top corner against Albion when the two sides drew 2-2 at Hillsborough in the Championship in October 2018.
"It's the most exciting challenge of my career and certainly the biggest challenge of my career," he said. "It's clear that West Bromwich Albion are very ambitious. I share those ambitions of wanting to play in the Premier League."
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