Dan @AlbionOnSunday

Fri 11 September 2020 13:30, UK

Dan is a die-hard West Brom fan who has been going to The Hawthorns for over 20 years and we’re proud to feature his articles on the West Brom News website. You can find more of Dan’s fascinating reads at Albion On Sunday or follow him on Twitter @AlbionOnSunday.

Wednesday, September 9 marked the end of Oliver Burke’s West Brom career. A career that has averaged one goal every 686 minutes. Or another way of looking at it, the Scotland international has scored one goal for the club in 24 appearances. Objectively, in financial terms, his has probably been the club’s worst transfer, in an era littered with numerous contenders for the title.

Albion fans were delighted to see his transfer to Sheffield United confirmed. His departure was almost a greater cause for celebration than the arrival of Callum Robinson in exchange. A masterstroke of a transfer conjured up where it appeared inevitable that the estimated £15million invested in him would be written off in its entirety.

Does that tell the whole story though?

It was a sad end to a signing which had so much promise. Last weekend, we lauded the transfer a young home nations winger with pace, skill and potential in Grady Diangana. It feels longer than three years ago that Burke confirmed his transfer from RB Leipzig meeting much the same criteria for much the same price.

There are times when a player can simply not turn the tide once supporters minds are set. The strength of feeling towards Burke is certainly heightened in a social media age, and he has done little to win the support of those detractors.

Having signed as a 20-year-old he has been nothing but professional. He hasn’t spoken negatively about the club or his future, nor been a disruptive presence in the squad. By all accounts, he is well-liked and trains hard if not enthusiastically. He is, however, not as good as his fee suggests he should be.

It comes down to three factors; the fee paid, his expected quality and his on-pitch demeanour. If you accept he is playing to the best of his ability (which I realise many would dispute) he’s only responsible for the last point – and should that really matter?

There have been players who have performed far worse – off and on the pitch – that have been given a far easier ride. Some even stole taxis but were warmly welcomed back into the fold.

I looked back to the last time I saw him play, which was the Carabao Cup exit to Millwall just over a year ago:

The common consensus is that Burke is lazy. The problem is not one of effort but one of aggression. He hasn’t the fire, confidence or instinct to use his height or pace to ever make centre halves worry. You see Austin fighting for everything and enjoying the tussles and scraps to assert his authority. The quintessential poachers goal summed him up. Unfortunately that just doesn’t seem to be in Burke’s locker. He will have heard the frustration from fans and will know he got weaker as the game went on.

We are trying to fit a £15m square into a round hole. The experiment should be over.

Albion On Sunday: Albion vs Millwall Sept 2019

This was not an especially prophetic assessment – even in a half-empty Hawthorns that night you could sense that the end had arrived. One way or another, it was unlikely that Burke would be given the opportunity to impress again, and if he did, he would not be given the benefit of the doubt to exploit it. Consciously or unconsciously, too many of us made up our minds.

We all make assessments on players though, sometimes more rationally than others. There are some players who are patently dire but we adore due to their work rate or some intangible factor of personality. I admit I had been desperate to see the positives in Burke’s performance and see him deliver that promise, but it was a moment where the die felt cast. And yet, there is part of me which feels that Sheffield United have not had quite the mugging which some suspect.

For a player so clearly in need of confidence, stability and intensive coaching, the transfer to Sheffield United could be a masterstroke. Loan upheavals to Spain and Scotland have hardly given him the environment that he needed to succeed, and whilst we have offloaded lost causes at value before (looking at you Stoke), Chris Wilder is no fool.

If I were the mugging kind, Wilder would near the bottom of my list of targets.

I’m reminded of a Middlesbrough fan once telling me about Adama Traore’s transformation under – wait for it – Tony Pulis. Despite his physical and technical attributes, he had never really thrived amidst a flurry of clubs. Pulis, this Teeside-pundit reckoned, had told Traore to do just one thing; get the ball and run at people. Ignore the rest of the tactical noise and responsibilities of the rest of the team. Alongside an arm around the shoulder, it worked, and with that confidence and experience, the rest of his game improved until those tactical areas improved with it.

The irony in this is that it was Pulis who was the coach welcoming Burke to The Hawthorns 2017, ahead of one of the more catastrophic seasons for the club. Although he also struggled with injuries, it was a campaign where nobody could reasonably have been expected to thrive.

It is perhaps a reminder that the contract with player and club works two ways. Have Albion really prioritised him and his development? Or was he an impulsive punt – someone to fill out the squad and then merely collateral damage in the tailspin of the relegation season.

The argument levelled is that none of Pulis, Darren Moore or Slaven Bilic have, despite warm words, ever made the decision to make him part of their vision. All are coaches who have got the best out of younger players and trusted in integrating youth into the fold at various stages of difficult seasons. The chaos that has enveloped the club for large parts of his tenure provided opportunities for others, so why not Burke? Academy players are judged at a lower bar than transfers though – they are given greater patience and not expected to show an immediate return on investment. However, once it was clear that Burke had failed to hit the ground running, with each passing game that pressure and expectation merely built.

Instead, he was given an opportunity in his loan move to Celtic to ‘prove a point’ and come back to the club in good enough form to secure a place in the manager’s plans. For a while under the excellent coaching of Brendan Rodgers, he appeared to be doing just that – it was his best period as an employee [technically] of West Brom. It is this which makes me minded to believe that he could yet become a very good player. Then circumstance once more intervened as Rodgers left to join Leicester. According to and sporting director Luke Dowling in a bizarre and very public spat, Celtic then did a very bad job of looking after Burke.

Dowling finished the outburst with the statement: “He is now a player who needs some stability to show his real form.” Well, quite. Instead, Burke was shipped out to start his seventh professional season in La Liga; his sixth new league. It was not exactly a period of strategic coherence for West Brom.

In some ways, Burke has not been aided by the enforced contrast with Robinson. “CR7” is a gift to social media admins. Who else wears their loan clubs kit to bed? Not, you would suspect, Burke. An air of disdain for such behaviour would have been a prerequisite for centre-forwards a generation ago.

Maybe he did wear his kit to bed after scoring the winning goal against Luton in the EFL Cup. Or, it may just be more likely that Burke is a man that does not display that emotion in the right way. Especially in a social media age. If you have good form then attitude largely goes unnoticed; but without that form, you have nothing to fall back on.

Football is as much about the impression you are left with as it is the statistics you remember.

At times the level of more personal vitriol that has been aimed his way has bordered on uncomfortable. Not being good enough is not a high enough crime for the disproportionate contempt in which he is held by a minority. He has become an easy punch line, in which we have all at times indulged. More generously, he is a symbol of the wasted money and opportunity that the final year in the Premier League represented. Mostly though, the folly of giving a high profile five-year, multi-million-pound contract to an untested 20-year-old sits with the club and not him.

More importantly, at a professional level, there is almost zero relationship between the money a person earns and their motivation, performance or mental wellbeing. People – let alone footballers – are not that simple. It is a fact that still sometimes gets lost in the fury of seeing money go to waste.

I suspect the majority of Albion fans would not support the following view, but with the right coaching and opportunities, Burke is still young enough and naturally talented enough to deliver on that initial promise. I would not be at all surprised if Wilder ends up the happier party.

Every transfer is a gamble though, and Albion have replaced a work in progress player with someone who is ready to make an instant impact. It is a great deal for all parties. Transfers are not necessarily a zero-sum game; contrary to popular belief, both parties can walk away mugging free. Though such an attitude would make Twitter a quiet and lonely place.

You can only judge a transfer in retrospect and whilst his signature was a mistake, his sale appears a success. Maybe we will find out when Albion face Sheffield United until 28th November.

Oliver Burke may not have laughed often during his time at West Brom, but he may yet laugh last.

In other West Brom news, Aston Villa have beaten the Baggies to signing this player.

Be sure to follow West Brom News on Facebook and Twitter for 24/7 updates on the Baggies and more exclusive interviews with Kevin Phillips.