After an impressive 2023/24 campaign, West Brom could be set to lose centre-back Cedric Kipre, with the defender attracting interest from the continent.
It’s reported by Turkish outlet Sabah that Trabzonspor are interested in signing the 27-year-old, and with his contract expiring at The Hawthorns this summer, the Baggies are powerless to stop him from leaving.
The defender joined the Baggies in the summer of 2020, and took a while to make an impact, spending time on loan with Belgian outfit Charleroi and fellow Championship side Cardiff City, but he’s enjoyed a fantastic 2023/24 season with the Baggies, helping them reach the play-offs.
The club have offered him a new deal at The Hawthorns, but it seems as if they’ll struggle to keep hold of the ex-Wigan man, with Trabzonspor able to offer Kipre European football next season following their recent 3rd place finish in the Turkish Süper Lig.
West Brom can have no complaints about Cedric Kipre leaving
Our West Brom fan pundit, Matt Smith, believes the club can have no complaints if Kipre decides to sign for Trabzonspor, with the player owing the club no loyalty after the way they’ve treated him in the past.
Speaking to Football League World, Matt said: “I think Kipre is gone, and I thought he’d be going since January, because in my opinion, we’ve not particularly treated him very well ever since he’s been at the club.
“We’ve shipped him out here there and everywhere, and then the first very good season he has for us happens in the last year of his contract, and we all beg him to sign up again, but in the last three or four years, we’ve been trying to get him off the books.
“I don’t blame him for maximising the opportunity to go and play football elsewhere. It’s a bit of a blow losing him to Turkey. I don’t see the hype or why that’s such an attractive proposition as opposed to a top five league or the Premier League – but I’m sure that European football is a pull.
“But I don’t blame him for going, I thought he’d go as he’s not been treated very well, and he doesn’t owe us anything whatsoever, just like we didn’t owe him anything as we shipped him off here there and everywhere.
“I’ve been resigned that he’s going for a while. It’s a very big blow and a huge loss. For what we can probably attract, he’s irreplaceable, and I don’t think we’ve ever signed someone of his quality, but I was absolutely slagging him off prior to the first game of the season, so who knows?
“Stranger things have happened, but it’ll be a huge loss though.”
2023/24 was a coming of age year for Cedric Kipre at West Brom
The Ivorian was a mainstay in West Brom’s starting XI this season, and he made 48 appearances for the Baggies in all competitions.
For context, prior to the 2023/24 season starting, Kipre had made just 19 appearances in total for the club, so it showed just how much of an impact he had this year.
The 27-year-old wasn’t particularly highly-rated at the club prior to this season starting, and loans in Belgium and with Cardiff City suggested that they wanted to get him off their books, but with the Baggies’ financial struggles and lack of first-team players, he was brought back into the fold last August and proved a point to the doubters.
Had West Brom fans been told last summer that they’d be trying to keep Kipre after he made 48 appearances this season, they’d have struggled to believe you, but the defender has become one of the first names on the teamsheet for Carlos Corberan.
As our fan pundit Matt said above, should the defender leave for Trabzonspor this summer, they’ll find it difficult to replace him, and that’s credit to the way that Kipre has managed to turn his career around following his loan spells.
The irony isn’t lost on supporters that they’ve spent years trying to get rid of him, only for him to become a star player in his last season at the club, and it appears that he’s done enough to earn a move to a Europa League side this summer.
