Matheus Pereira: West Brom boss Ismael not fazed by impending exit

Matheus Pereira appears to have made the last of his 79 appearances for West Bromwich Albion

West Bromwich Albion boss Valerien Ismael insists that he does not want any more "lost energy" and that he remains unruffled by the impending exit of Baggies prize asset Matheus Pereira.

The 25-year-old Brazilian confirmed on Twitter on Monday that he wants to leave the Championship club following relegation from the Premier League.

He was upset by Ismael's assertion that he was not committed to the club.

But Ismael told BBC WM: "Everything has been said. It is not a new situation."

The Frenchman says he is concerned only with Friday's tricky season opener at Scott Parker's Bournemouth.

"My focus now is on the game and on the squad," said Ismael. "I don't want lost energy.

"For us, it is important to have the right direction.

"Every summer, every winter, some player at some club wants to leave.

"But the club is always bigger than the player."

Ismael has already confirmed that Pereira, who has not taken part in any of Albion's pre-season friendlies to ensure that he remains injury-free, will play no part on Friday.

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 told both players that, if they were staying, they had to be "100% committed to the club". He then followed that on Saturday by saying: "I have spoken with Matheus. He was clear he wants to leave. He is not committed to the Championship and not committed to us."

But Pereira then said in a post on his private Twitter account that he felt "disrespected", that it "degrades" his image and, although he confirmed that he did "want to leave", he did 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," he said.

"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."

Pereira has scored 20 goals in 79 appearances over two seasons at the Albion.

He arrived initially on loan from Sporting Lisbon before completing a reported £9m move in the summer of 2020 after helping the Baggies back to the top flight.

Albion are hoping to at least double their money on the influential playmaker, who scored eight times and made 17 assists in Albion's 2019-20 Championship season, before netting 11 more in the Premier League in 2020-21, along with six assists.

Albion boss Valerien Ismael was speaking to BBC Radio WM's Rob Gurney.