West Brom handed potential Tom Fellows boost amid Everton, Southampton transfer saga | OneFootball

Everton’s emerging interest in Tyler Dibling may allow West Brom to keep hold of star winger Tom Fellows.

West Brom will be finalising preparations ahead of their 2025-26 Championship season opener against Blackburn Rovers.

Albion rounded off their pre-season tests with a 3-2 victory over Spanish outfit Rayo Vallecano at The Hawthorns, with Ryan Mason overseeing one victory, one draw and two defeats in that period.

During the summer transfer window, the Black Country outfit haven’t been as busy as perhaps originally expected, with the club bringing just three new faces into the building as they continue to battle P&S issues.

For Albion to be competitive in the summer market, it was believed that the club would have to part ways with their most sellable assets, with Tom Fellows earmarked as the player to move on so the Baggies could be more free spending.

But it hasn’t turned out that way, with Fellows still an Albion player at the time of writing.

And now with Everton’s new interest in another exciting Championship talent, Baggies fans will be delighted to know that the club has a very realistic chance of keeping Fellows at the club and seeing him add to the 14 assists he notched last season.

Everton switch summer targets from Tom Fellows to Tyler Dibling

Despite West Brom failing to reach the play-offs, Tom Fellows had a magnificent season from a personal perspective, grabbing 14 assists, a superb feat considering he wasn’t consistently used under Tony Mowbray during the second half of the season.

This led to the former Crawley Town man being joint-first for most assists, level with Portsmouth’s Josh Murphy. As an England U21 international with bags of potential, there was much expectation that Fellows had done enough to earn the step-up to the Premier League.

Everton seemed the likeliest destination for Fellows to embark on, with TeamTalk previously reporting that the Toffees were gearing up to make a bid for the 22-year-old and test West Brom’s resolve.

But since then, links have quietened, and Everton have now been touted with interest in Southampton’s Tyler Dibling, as per The Athletic.

It is believed the Merseyside outfit have bid £40 million, including add-ons, for the teenage sensation, but the Saints are likely to demand an even bigger fee.

West Brom can look upwards if they keep Tom Fellows

With Everton setting their sights on Tyler Dibling, it makes it increasingly likely that Tom Fellows remains a West Brom player by the 1st September, and that will only benefit the Albion team with the quality he possesses in the final third.

As Ryan Mason looks to build a free-flowing forward line that can dominate opposition boxes, Fellows could be at the heart of implementing that, with his direct nature and ability to skip past defenders with ease two big qualities that the team desperately needs to retain.

Albion wouldn’t have been close to play-off contention without Fellows’ consistent performances on the right flank, with his deliveries so key to the frontmen getting the service they crave to make an impact.

There’s no doubt Albion do need funds to increase the quality levels even further, but they could achieve that by selling defender Torbjorn Heggem, who has been linked with a £10m move away to Italian side Bologna.

It could be something for the Baggies to consider, given that they already have the likes of Nat Phillips, George Campbell, Caleb Taylor and Kyle Bartley on the books, and those additional funds could be used to bolster the midfield and other attacking areas to compliment Fellows and bring about a squad nicely balanced with depth and quality.

Whatever happens during the remainder of the summer transfer window, keeping hold of Fellows is imperative for any success to unfold in B71, as the winger has every chance of improving on his stellar 2024-25 campaign.