Pritchard Loan to West Brom Curious Choice for Spurs

By Ryan Wrenn | Feb 1, 2016

Contrary to other recent reports, Spurs midfielder Alex Pritchard now seems destined to go to West Brom on loan.

Barely a day ago it seemed close to being confirmed that Pritchard was set to go out on loan to Championship side Burnley. That deal made a good amount of sense. Pritchard had, after all, had a wildly successful loan stint with Brentford last season as they fought for promotion into the Premier League. That is a competition where he has thrived before.

Though it has yet to be confirmed in any official capacity by Spurs or West Brom, Sky Sports reveals that the switch – should it happen – would come down to Pritchard’s preference to be tested at a higher level than England’s second division. Deals with Burnley, Middlesbrough or Brighton might all seem regressive at this point, even if all three teams are in the mix of a promotion fight.

It’s most every footballer’s desire to play in the Premier League, and often loans such as the one rumored here are the last phase before a player is either adopted into the first team or sold. Given what we know about Pritchard’s exploits last season, there’s good reason to be confident that he’ll perform well enough to earn a spot on Spurs’ matchday squads next season.

There are at least two intriguing wrinkles to this latest rumor however.

First, West Brom seems like it should be near the bottom of a list of teams in the Premier League that might be in need of a player like Pritchard. Not because they already have players like him in abundance, but because they don’t.

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Tony Pulis has West Brom playing his system. Robust defending, long balls, pacey wingers and tall forwards. While that’s a perfectly viable way of playing football – West Brom are 14th in the Premier League, comfortably seven points away from the relegation zone – it’s not a system that has much room for a player of Pritchard’s mold.

At 5’6, he’s not necessarily going to be the target man Pulis might want far up the pitch. His skillset, moreover, is built more around clever passing and build up play than testing the opposition’s offside trap or running down long balls.

Consider that last season on loan with Brentford, Pritchard averaged from an attacking midfield position to notch 45.9 passes per 90 minutes according to WhoScored – a total in excess of any other player in West Brom’s current starting XI. Now, some of that is down to the contrasting styles of Brentford and West Brom – the latter preferred a more ground-based passing game – but there’s no escaping the impression that Pritchard would be the odd man out on this team.

Unless Pulis is about to dramatically alter the way his team plays, it’s not at all clear where – or how often – Pritchard finds himself on the pitch. One would think that Spurs wouldn’t loan him out to West Brom without reasonable, easy-to-believe assurances that he would get significant minutes in the latter half of the season. So perhaps Pulis does have a plan that meets Spurs expectations.

It’s hard to be optimistic about that when you consider that Pulis has proven himself unable or unwilling to make the accommodations necessary to get the best out of Saido Berahino this season. The players’ petulance aside, he is a natural goalscorer stuck on the bench of a team that desperate needs natural goalscorers. Only Aston Villa has scored less than West Brom’s 22 goals so far this season.

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Which brings us seamlessly into the second wrinkle: could Pritchard’s loan be some kind of makeweight preceding another move by Spurs for Berahino? That is sheer speculation at this point, but it’s intriguing nonetheless. If West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace can find a way to save face in the act of selling the club’s best player last season, it might be through the acquisition – however temporary – of another talented youngster.

More on that latter wrinkle as the final day of the January transfer window moves on.