Yahoo News West Brom clinch unique transfer agreement before the end of the season
West Bromwich Albion have announced that they've agreed an unique arrangement with West Ham United which involves Callum Marshall heading back to his parent club. The teenager was one of three players who arrived in the January transfer window on loan, along with Celtic winger Mikey Johnston and attacker Andreas Weimann of Bristol City.
Marshall, though, has been limited to only three substitute appearances totalling 54 minutes since joining, and not at all since the 2-0 defeat at home to Southampton in the middle of February. The Northern Irishman, who was away in the recent international break with his country, had scored 19 goals in 14 appearances for the Irons' under 21s in the first half of the season but couldn't force his way into the first-team reckoning at The Hawthorns.
Marshall joined at a time when Daryl Dike had just made his comeback from a long-term Achilles injury and with Brandon Thomas-Asante still very much Carlos Corberan's first choice striker to lead the line. Weimann also increased the competition in that department, while Corberan has also leaned on his captain Jed Wallace as the front-man.
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While Corberan has spoken effusively of Marshall's training levels previously, the teenager has understandably shown signs of rawness while embarking on what is his first venture out into a first-team environment on a daily basis, having joined up previously only on a handful of occasions with David Moyes' first-team squad. With Josh Maja set to return to action in the near future, it's been decided by Albion and West Ham that Marshall will head back to London.
It's not technically the end of the loan, however; clubs cannot officially terminate loans outside of transfer windows, and Marshall will not be allowed to appear in the West Ham first team, but it's expected that he can feature for the club's under 21s in the remaining weeks of the season in order to secure more match exposure. Equally, if they deemed it necessary, Albion can still bring Marshall back to the club at any stage between now and the end of the season.
It's an amicable arrangement, secured with the player's best interests considered in these remaining weeks of the season.
