View: West Brom may have been handed Dwight Gayle reunion blow
OPINION
West Brom’s hopes of re-signing Dwight Gayle in the January transfer window may have been dashed by Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce.
The Sun has recently reported that Albion want the 29-year-old striker back at The Hawthorns in the New Year to help get the goals they need to win promotion from the Championship.
Gayle scored 24 goals in 41 appearances across all competitions for the Baggies last season as the Black Country side fell short in their promotion bid in the play-off semi-finals.
Since returning to St James’ Park, Gayle has struggled with an injury he picked up over the summer and has only recently recovered to full fitness.
The former Crystal Palace striker made his first appearance of the campaign last week when he came off the bench in the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Bruce has now confirmed that the centre-forward is set to feature once again this weekend.
West Brom fans will no doubt be hoping that Gayle can do some damage against Wolves, but Bruce’s comments suggest that he is a huge fan of the striker.
“I really like Dwight as a player, I’ve tried – and failed – to sign him three times so it’s nice to finally have him,” said Bruce, as quoted by Sky Sports journalist Keith Downie via his personal Twitter account on Friday.
If Bruce has tried to sign Gayle three times in the past, would he really be willing to let him go as soon as he does have him available?
It also does not help West Brom’s cause that Newcastle’s first-choice striker Joelinton is in rotten form, having scored just one goal all season and only registering one shot at goal in his last three league appearances [WhoScored].
Andy Carroll has also been reported to have suffered an injury this week [Sky Sports], which means that Gayle could play an important role at St James’ Park as the Magpies aim to move away from the Premier League’s relegation zone.
West Brom also have issues with their own striker options.
Charlie Austin has scored just twice since his summer arrival from Southampton while Kenneth Zohore is injured and himself has scored twice, but only from the penalty spot with both goals coming in August.
Hal Robson-Kanu only opened his account last week when he scored the winner against Middlesbrough so while all of Slaven Bilic’s strikers have hit the target at least once this term, they still are not getting anywhere near the goals that Gayle managed at The Hawthorns under Darren Moore and Jimmy Shan.
Luke Dowling, Mark Jenkins and Bilic need to be working on other striker targets for January because at the moment, the centre-forward position is West Brom’s weakness.
If Gayle is not available then someone else needs to be brought in but luckily, there is still plenty of time for things to change and for alternatives to be researched.
In other West Brom news, Paul Robinson fails to believe that Albion managed to sign this player in the summer.