Friday 25 November 2016 11:24, UK
West Brom boss Tony Pulis has claimed that £13m club record signing Nacer Chadli is facing a battle to get back in the team.
Chadli arrived at the Hawthorns from Spurs during the summer and settled in straight away, notching four goals and two assists in seven appearances for the Baggies.
The Belgian winger has been out of the team for the last two games either side of the latest international break following corrective surgery on a minor knee injury.
In his absence West Brom have won both games, beating champions Leicester City 2-1 at the King Power and thrashing Burnley 4-0 at the Hawthorns on Monday Night Football.
The 27-year-old is now back in full training for ahead of their trip to face Hull on Saturday, but Pulis has said that the club's star man may not find it that easy to regain his place.
"We've got one or two little knocks after Monday night and we're still waiting on Chadli, we'll make a late decision on him about whether we take him up or leave him for the Watford game," said Pulis.
"I can't wait to get Chadli in the team but at the moment I don't think he can get in there. They've played so well it's difficult to find a place for him.
"He trained yesterday and he trained very well. It's nice to have that problem.
"We played very well as a team on Monday. People have picked out individuals and that's always the case but the team played well and looked like a team. The last couple of games have been very good."
Pulis struggled to make headway in the transfer market during the summer before his late move for Chadli came through, and under new Chinese owner Guochuan Lai, Pulis is already looking towards the January window.
"That's the calibre of player we should be trying to get. We'll be looking to bring in one or two in the window because it"s important that people realise we want to move forward, we want to push on.
"Although we've had a decent start, there's lots of things that we want to put right. Now is the time, hopefully, that we'll get an opportunity to strengthen again.
"That's what we've got to carry on doing if we possibly can."
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