West Brom lauded for AFC Bournemouth, Chris Mepham deal - He did "really good" Sunderland job | OneFootball

FLW's West Brom fan pundit has been discussing Albion's imminent addition of Bournemouth defender Chris Mepham.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

West Brom are set to sign Bournemouth defender Chris Mepham.

The Baggies have made a strong start to their 2025/26 season.

New boss Ryan Mason has guided Albion to an unbeaten start after three league games, with two wins and a draw leaving them just two points behind the two leading pace-setters, Middlesbrough and Stoke City.

West Brom have made some eye-catching additions such as Toby Collyer, Krystian Bielik, Aune Heggebo and Nat Phillips this summer, and according to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, they've agreed a deal with Bournemouth that will see experienced defender Chris Mepham make the move to The Hawthorns.

West Brom issued Chris Mepham transfer verdict

We asked our West Brom fan pundit, Callum Burgess: 'West Brom are reportedly set to sign Bournemouth's Chris Mepham on a permanent deal. Thoughts? The Welsh international has strong pedigree and helped Sunderland to promotion last season, are you happy with this signing? Is he a good replacement for Torbjorn Heggem?'

Burgess said: "Yes, I'm really happy with Chris Mepham joining Albion.

"I think that a centre-back partnership of Mepham and Phillips has the promise of a really solid centre-back pairing at Championship level.

"He did a really good job at Sunderland last season helping them get to the play-off final and winning it to get promoted, and I think that at Championship level, you'd probably say that Mepham's in the decent tier of Championship centre-backs.

"He'll definitely be a decent signing for us. Going into this season, there was already a bit of rebuild with Semi Ajayi and Mason Holgate leaving, and that's been added to the task with Kyle Bartley retiring and Heggem going.

"Bringing in Mepham, Phillips, George Campbell and Bielik; I'd say that's a decent set of centre-half's we've got now.

"Whether or not Caleb Taylor leaves, we'll find that out in the next few days. But I think we're one full-back short of our defence looking quite good for the season now."

Chris Mepham brings pivotal Championship promotion-winning experience to West Brom's squad

In any team hoping to win promotion, having players who've been there and done it at that level in the squad is always vital.

Mepham is certainly one of those players.

Not only has he done it once, he's tasted Premier League promotion success on two separate occasions in his career.

His first taste of it came with Bournemouth in the 2021/22 season, where his 22 league appearances helped a then-Scott Parker-led Cherries side to automatic promotion.

Then he in many ways completed Championship football, having made 38 regular season appearances as well as a play-off final start for Sunderland last term, as they defeated Sheffield United at Wembley Stadium to reach the top-flight once again.

Therefore, being able to not only add a central defender who has proven himself to be a quality performer at Championship level, but one who has very recent experience to draw upon of what it takes to win promotion out of England's second tier could prove to be so valuable to Mason and the West Brom dressing room.