It will be completely unsurprising to anyone reading this to learn that West Brom manager Steve Bruce has been totally blown away by the quality shown so far by his new signing Tom Rogic over the past couple of weeks on the training ground, as the Championship stugglers look set to give the former Celtic legend his debut at The Hawthorns tomorrow against Swansea City.
“He will be involved,” Steve Bruce said, as reported in Scotsman. “These last couple of weeks have allowed us to get plenty of intense work into him in a bid to get him as close to where we need him to be in a physical sense.
“He’s crammed a lot of work in over the last ten days. Having watched him over the international break in training, he’s a very, very good footballer.
“I’m sure he’s going to be a big addition for us.”
It’s certainly a more interesting Rogic update that the one that was all over the mainstream media earlier this week when some no-mark former West Brom player managed to create negative Rogic headlines simply because he is a Rangers supporter, so is displeased at his old club signing a former Celtic player. It certainly runs deep does it not?
Tom Rogic, if he can get himself up to full match fitness, will be the best player in the Championship and can help West Brom climb up the table and maybe into the play-offs.
It’s also cutting it thin but can Australia really overlook one of their star players when selecting their squad for Qatar? As things stand Rogic will NOT be going to Qatar because he’s not kicked a ball competitively since that emotional Trophy Day exit at Celtic Park back in May when the Celtic support showed our Wizard of Oz just how much he meant to the fans.
That can start to change this weekend though and if Rogic can make an impact in October at West Brom then Socceroos manager Graham Arnold will be left with a tough call to make when selecting his World Cup squad.
With Tom Rogic’s undisputed quality it would be difficult for the Socceroos boss not to take the chance.