Why West Brom offloading Ahmed Hegazi is a horrible decision

According to Sky Sports, West Brom centre-back Ahmed Hegazi has joined Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad ahead of their November 6 transfer deadline. The Egyptian has departed the Baggies on an initial loan deal with a permanent transfer agreed for next summer. 

The club’s decision to cash in on Hegazi hasn’t gone down well with manager Slaven Bilic, who feels that the Egyptian would have contributed greatly to West Brom’s bid for survival in the Premier League. The Croatian has also emphasised that the 29-year-old wanted to stay at The Hawthorns but was sold against his wishes. (h/t Sky Sports)

Profile

A youth exponent of Egyptian outfit Ismaily, Ahmed Hegazi made 35 appearances for his boyhood club before moving to Europe with Fiorentina in January 2012. However, the defender made only 4 first-team appearances for La Viola, with his career in Italy failing to take off due to recurrent long-term injuries. 

Hegazi had a brief loan spell at Perugia in Serie B before returning to his homeland with Al Ahly, where he rebuilt his reputation and won back-to-back Egyptian Premier League titles. The 29-year-old returned to Europe with West Brom in 2017 and started all of the Baggies’ 38 Premier League fixtures in 2017-18 as the club suffered relegation to the Championship.

The Egyptian centre-back retained his status as a regular starter in the following campaign, featuring 40 times as West Brom suffered play-off heartbreak. However, he was restricted to a bit-part role in the Championship last season, partly due to injuries. He made only 16 appearances as the Baggies secured automatic promotion back to the top-flight.

A full international for Egypt since 2011, Hegazi has amassed 59 caps for his nation and was a part of the squad that finished runners-up to Cameroon at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. 

Hegazi could have been a key player this season

Ahmed Hegazi was one of the rare shining lights of West Brom’s dismal 2017-18 campaign. He was one of the very few players to come away with some genuine credit from that season and strengthened his credentials in English football even further with 54 league starts in the Championship over the past couple of campaigns. 

Besides 36-year-old Branislav Ivanovic, Hegazi was one of the few defenders at West Brom who had a good know-how of the Premier League. Kyle Bartley, Dara O’Shea, and Semi Ajayi might have played ahead of him in the Championship last season, but none of them has much top-flight experience to show for.

West Brom conceded 13 goals in their four opening PL fixtures this season before Hegazi returned to the starting XI to guide the Baggies to their first clean sheet of the campaign against Burnley. That pretty much sums up his quality and it’s a no-brainer that Albion would have benefitted massively from his calming presence at the back moving forward.

Verdict

Ahmed Hegazi was perhaps the most high-profile defender at West Brom before the arrival of Ivanovic. However, unlike the Serb, who is well past his prime at 36, the Egyptian still had plenty of years remaining in his prime at just 29. 

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Add to that his status as a key player for West Brom in the Premier League, as well as in the Championship, over the past three seasons, offloading an international calibre defender like Hegazi seems to be a terrible bit of business.

It’s even more galling when you consider that the current set of defenders lack top-flight experience and are apparently not good enough to stem the inflow of goals. 

All in all, the Baggies could be left to rue their hasty decision to sell the Egyptian if they end up going straight back down to the Championship.