Signing Number Four !

14 July 2004

Following last weeks flurry of excitement over Albion being linked with a whole range of strikers, the club have finally signed... a goalkeeper. No average one, though - Tomasz Kuszczak (pronounced Kush-chak) is 22 years old, has joined from Hertha Berlin and is reckoned to be pushing Liverpool's Jerzy Dudek for the Polish Number One jersey.

Reports on Kuszczak suggest that he is a big lad (he's 6 foot three) and dominant in the air, though in the report on the Official Web Site, Manager Gary Megson admits that "he's not the finished article by any means".

With question marks still hanging over the fitness of Russell Hoult, given his back problems last season, the signing provides another useful backup in the squad. What it means for the future of Joe Murphy, whose first team opportunities have been extremely limited despite Hoult's injury problems, and Simon Miotto, who has only recently joined and has yet to play any first team football at all, remains to be seen. Whether playing in some of the reserve games for Albion will be enough to help Kuszczak knock Dudek off the top spot for Poland will also be interesting to see.

Previous Stories:

  13 July 2004:  Greening bid accepted

  12 July 2004:  It all went quiet...

  08 July 2004:  Latest rumours!

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