View: 28y/o is the final piece of the promotion puzzle for West Brom
West Brom journalist Steve Madeley has said that signing a new striker in the January window is crucial to West Brom’s hopes of promotion under Slaven Bilic.
With Kenneth Zohore only having scored two and Charlie Austin still getting back to full fitness, the responsibility for goals has passed to the wingers, and they’ve risen to the occasion – Matty Phillips and Grady Diangana have scored four each.
However, a striker seems like an essential signing in the next window and Madeley says Plan A will “inevitably” be getting Dwight Gayle back.
“Plan A will, inevitably, be Dwight Gayle, the Newcastle United striker who almost fired a disjointed West Brom side to promotion last season under Darren Moore and who was pursued until the final days of the summer window before attention turned to Austin,” Madeley wrote in the Athletic.
28-year-old Gayle practically guarantees goals in the Championship. He’s scored 23 in each of his two last full seasons in the second tier.
However, it might not be that easy to convince Steve Bruce to let him go.
Newcastle are struggling themselves and have only scored five goals in eight games. Gayle has been injured but made the bench for the 1-0 win against Man United.
The best thing that can happen for West Brom is that he’s given a run in the side and blanks. And Gayle has a history of not delivering in the top-flight. He only scored 6 in 35 games in the 17/18 season.
A run of blanks between now and the January window – there are 11 weeks to go until the window opens – could convince Bruce to get Gayle off the books and use his wages to bring another striker in.
With the position West Brom are in, with the attackers we’ve got and Bilic in control, we can’t see any way the club doesn’t get promoted if Gayle comes back for the second half of the season.
Bilic must turn on the charm and ensure it happens.
In other West Brom news, Summer signing could face fight to get back into West Brom starting XI