Steve Bruce delivers five-word Okay Yokuslu reply amid calls for West Brom transfer

Steve Bruce admits the Okay Yokuslu to West Bromwich Albion ‘ship might have sailed’ amid calls from quarters of the fanbase for the Turkish international’s return to The Hawthorns this summer.

Yokuslu, 28, was a hit during his short stay at the club previously; he spent the second half of the 2020-21 campaign, as Albion were relegated from the Premier League, with the club and, despite their fate, he impressed under Sam Allardyce.

Linked with a return to Albion last season, although that was never likely to materialise under Bruce’s predecessor Valerien Ismael, calls have returned - indeed they’ve intensified - for the club to move for the holding midfielder this summer.

That was on the back of the announcement that the player himself made on social media last week, when he revealed that he and Spanish side Celta Vigo had mutually agreed to terminate the remainder of his contract.

Bruce - who is in the market for another midfielder in the remainder of this transfer window having added Jed Wallace and John Swift - played down any suggestions that Yokuslu’s return might be on the cards, though.

“He was a very good player, he didn’t play a lot last year – if I’m being brutally honest I think that ship might have sailed,” Bruce admitted.

The Albion was speaking after seeing 22 different players get a run-out in their first pre-season friendly of the summer, a narrow 2-1 win over Leyton Orient in the Algarve. Conor Townsend and Zac Ashworth, both left-backs, found the net.

“Everybody has come through which is crucial in the first 10 days, people like Dike and Zohore have come through,” Bruce assessed. “It’s been tough, but they have dug deep now we just have to play a bit better football.

“We have scored a hideous