West Brom have confirmed that winger Jeremy Sarmiento has returned to parent club Brighton and Hove Albion upon the opening of the January transfer window. Sarmiento was one of only three senior arrivals at The Hawthorns in a quiet summer of recruitment, but the Ecuadorian has been recalled midway through his intended season-long loan.
The 21-year-old made 21 appearances, including six starts in a row between the victory at Cardiff City (in which he scored the winning goal) and the defeat at Middlesbrough, just before Christmas. The decision has been taken, though, to cut short that loan agreement, as is Brighton’s right as the parent club at the halfway stage and Sarmiento isn’t involved in today’s game at Swansea City.
It remains to be seen what the Seagulls’ plan is for Sarmiento; they currently have a host of attacking injuries to contend with, including the likes of Ansu Fati, Solly March, Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adringa, and they could reintegrate Sarmiento or send him back out on loan again for the second half of the campaign.
It remains to be seen what the Seagulls’ plan is for Sarmiento; they currently have a host of attacking injuries to contend with, including the likes of Ansu Fati, Solly March, Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adringa, and they could reintegrate Sarmiento or send him back out on loan again for the second half of the campaign.
Although his time at The Hawthorns has ended prematurely, Sarmiento’s stay at Albion has been a good one in his fledgling career; he has played more games for Albion than he has managed back at Brighton and has scored his first competitive goals in senior football, the first of those being against Middlesbrough in August.
Sarmiento, who had spells in the Benfica and Charlton Athletic academies before being picked up by Brighton and who has 13 Ecuador caps, signed a new contract at the AMEX Stadium in the summer before he left for the Black Country and his deal on the south coast runs until the summer of 2027.
As for Albion, there is an intention to replace Sarmiento; Carlos Corberan already has plans to cover the loss of Matt Phillips, and it could be that Albion add two or three players in this January transfer window to help deal with the dearth of options now that Sarmiento has departed. Grady Diangana is also set to be unavailable for the next couple of weeks or more, depending on how his native DR Congo fare at AFCON in the Ivory Coast.
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