West Brom join race for Daniel Sturridge

After his fantastic loan period at Bolton at the end of last season, Daniel Sturridge is certainly in demand this summer. Stoke City made a (useless) £6m bid for the 21 year-old hitman and Newcastle have been linked as well, but I would have thought that a return to Bolton would have been the best bet for Sturridge next season.

But now it is being revealed that the West Brom boss Roy Hodgson has also made an approach for the youngster. The previous Baggies boss Roberto Di Matteo tried to take Sturridge to the Hawthorns in January but lost out to Bolton, and now Hodgson has decided to follow in his footsteps.

Chelsea are believed to have put a £20m price on his head to deter prospective buyers as they consider Sturridge to be a certain future starter for Chelsea, but right now he is very unlikely to get in the team, especially if Radamel Falcao joins Fernando Torres, Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba in the star-studded squad.

So it looks like Sturridge will be loaned out again next season, and I suspect that Hodgson would be a good man for Sturridge to work under next season if he doesn’t rejoin Owen Coyle at Bolton….