Carlton Palmer: West Brom unlikely to sign Dwight Gayle in January
West Brom will struggle to sign Dwight Gayle in the January transfer window, according to Carlton Palmer.
Albion have been linked with a move for the Newcastle United striker, with the Telegraph reporting that a loan deal is in the pipeline with an obligation to buy dependent on promotion from the Championship.
Gayle previously spent the 2018-19 season on loan at the Hawthorns, scoring 24 goals in 41 appearances to help West Brom finish in the Championship playoffs.
Speaking to Give Me Sport, former Baggies midfielder Palmer suggested that a January deal could be difficult to do.
“The last time [Gayle] was there [in the Championship with West Brom] he scored 24 goals,” he said. “Eddie Howe has said that he’s still in their plans and I would think that Newcastle have got a plan A and a plan B.
“Plan A would obviously be survival, a plan B would be they get relegated, so I don’t think you’re going to sell a player who’s proven to have scored 24 goals in that league, in the Championship. You’ve got a player on your doorstep to fire you back to the Premier League, so I don’t think they’re selling.”
Free to leave?
Put simply, Gayle knows where the back of the net is in the Championship. Across his last three seasons in the second tier with Peterborough, Newcastle and West Brom he has struck 59 goals.
It is hardly a surprise that former Albion manager Darren Moore described the striker as a “goal machine” in an interview with The Athletic in October 2019.
This season Gayle has played just 21 minutes of Premier League football for Newcastle and his only start has come in the EFL Cup.
That can’t be a position that any player wants to be in and the 32-year-old would surely be keen on a move back to the Hawthorns in January.
Would the Magpies let it happen? Eddie Howe has still named Gayle on the bench in recent games hinting that he may want him as part of his squad, but if the club invest in a new striker in January then the London-born frontman would likely be free to leave.
In other West Brom news, Albion must do everything they can to keep hold of this “fantastic” player in January.
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