West Brom are on the right track to being promoted to the Premier League this season, however right now, the side is struggling to get into the automatic promotion places in the Championship.

Fulham and Bournemouth have gone out with quite a stretch with West Brom nine points off the top of the table right now, and eight points off the runner up position. Both spots offer promotion to the Premier League next season and Valerien Ismael will be doing everything he can to close the gap between the clubs and challenge for automatic positions for top-flight football to avoid playoffs.

One way that West Bromwich Albion have been exploring is the potential of making signings in the January transfer window, that could take the team over the finish line if they were to buy the right players in the right areas.

There has been a certain player that has been heavily linked with a move to the Hawthorns.

Tom Lawrence currently plays for Derby County and has been touted with a move away in January due to ongoing financial issues at the club who are currently battling administration and have been served multiple point deductions in the Championship this season after staying up on the last day.

Manager Wayne Rooney is committed to damage limitation at the club and working with the players available to salvage anything he can for the club, in the hope that, by some miracle, they may be able to stay up this season.

It has been widely reported that Derby will continue to offload players from the wage bill in the January transfer window, and Tom Lawrence was tipped to be one of their most valuable assets to sell, but Rooney has come out to dismiss those claims, which will be a disappointment to Albion.

The Derby County manager has made it clear that Lawrence will not leave the club mid-season, dealing a massive blow to Ismael and co at the Hawthorns.

“No player will leave this club without me giving it the go-ahead. With Tom Lawrence, he will be here until the end of the season.”

This will be a seismic blow to Ismael's transfer plans, one that will surely leave him gutted. After all, Lawrence was a viable and obtainable target who could've added much-needed goals to a side where their forwards have not scored more than three each this season so far. Furthermore, he is a proven second-tier player with 43 goals in the Championship.

Ismael will have to look elsewhere for his goal machine that can help the team climb the table this season, and will be hoping his current crop of attacking players can perform to the levels expected to gain more goals in not only the lead up to the January transfer window but the second half of the season too.

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