West Bromwich Albion chief reveals how club felt about Tom Fellows’ £10m Southampton move

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West Bromwich Albion sold academy product Tom Fellows to Southampton this summer, and their sporting director has admitted it was a ‘difficult decision’.

EFL Analysis‘ chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey revealed after the deadline day deal that West Brom saw Fellows’ departure coming, with it being deemed unlikely internally that they would be able to keep hold of the Under-21 2025 Euros winner.

Southampton signed him for £10million on deadline day, as well as Middlesbrough’s Finn Azaz for £12m, with the Saints making the most of their parachute payments.

Now, Baggies sporting director Andrew Nestor has revealed just how West Brom had prepared for clubs coming in for Fellows.

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West Brom’s Andrew Nestor reveals club’s strategy for Tom Fellows’ transfer interest

Nestor recently spoke about West Brom’s transfer window in a lengthy YouTube video with the club.

Asked how difficult it was to sell Fellows, he said: “Yeah, it’s always a difficult decision to sell a player like Tom. He’s loved in this community, came up through our academy. I think that makes it a bit different sometimes than selling other players who didn’t come up through that pathway through the club.

“Coming into this window we had a very clear cut strategy and we had been signing players in anticipation of what we knew would be our outgoings. That allowed us to be patient with our outgoings to ensure we had the best value that we could.

“Sometimes those replacements are like-for-like replacements, or sometimes it’s taking those resources and deploying them elsewhere in the squad to ensure we’re a well-balanced squad and we’re at the level we need to be at to compete.”

Forward Fellows arrived at West Brom in 2012 at Under-10s level and went on to make 96 appearances for the club, scoring nine goals and grabbing 19 assists.

Southampton’s bid was the best West Brom ever received for Tom Fellows

The winger had managed a league-leading 14 assists in the Championship last term, so it’s no surprise clubs came sniffing this summer.

Fellows had been linked with Premier League Everton, but it was the Saints who won his signature – and Nestor says their proposal was the best put forward to the Baggies chiefs.

“With Tom, the offer from Southampton was the best offer we’d received. Given he’s a homegrown player, there’s a benefit from a [Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR)] perspective,” Nestor said.

He added: “There was also the human element of it, we knew this could be an eventuality and in the winter we spoke to Tom and his agent about what we would do in certain cases and what the club would do in certain situations. But also we wanted to make sure whatever move happens, that it would also be right for Tom.”

Fellows had registered one assist in four appearances this season, setting up Isaac Price in the 3-2 win over Wrexham.