Rafa Benitez's new club Dalian Yifang approach West Brom over Salomon Rondon

The former Newcastle boss wants new club Dalian Yifang to buy Rondon from the Baggies and an approach has been made.

It's unclear if Yifang have triggered Rondon's £16.5million release clause, but they are offering more money than any interested English club.

Newcastle, Wolves and West Ham have all been sniffing around the Venezuelan striker this summer, but none of them have got near Rondon's release clause so far.

A move to Yifang would represent the best deal for the Baggies – but it's not clear whether Rondon would be willing to follow Benitez to China.

Albion will definitely sell the striker this summer, because he only has one year left on his contract and has no intentions of returning to The Hawthorns.

But they are keen to see how much they can get for him before they move on their own targets.

Having already lost Dwight Gayle and Jay Rodriguez, the Baggies are making strikers a priority, but their budget will be affected by Rondon's exit.

Head coach Slaven Bilic said this week: “Salomon is probably going to go as well, hopefully that will finish quickly and we can activate the targets we’ve been working on for the last two and a half weeks.”

This isn't the first time a Chinese club has been interested in Rondon.

Back in January 2017, the Baggies rejected a £32m bid from Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian.

Rondon was Albion's main striker at the time, and selling him at the end of the transfer window would have left them struggling to replace him.