West Brom should be regretting Caleb Taylor’s £2.5m Millwall transfer mistake
West Brom would surely love to have their decision to sell Caleb Taylor to Millwall back.
Ryan Mason was given a sizeable pot of money to spend in this season’s summer window, as Shilen Patel was determined to back his new West Brom head coach.
A flurry of new centre-back signings arrived at The Hawthorns, with Chris Mepham, Krystian Bielik, George Campbell and Nat Phillips all making permanent moves to the Albion.
Because of this influx of new central defenders, youngster Taylor was allowed to seek a permanent exit from the Baggies, as he joined Millwall in a reported deal worth around £2.5million on 29 August last year.
Caleb Taylor has enjoyed excellent debut season for Millwall
Having joined West Brom at Under-10 level, Taylor worked his way right through Albion’s academy ranks before eventually making his first-team debut in a 3-1 Premier League loss to Arsenal in May 2021.
Loans to Cheltenham Town, Bolton Wanderers and Wycombe Wanderers would follow for him over the next few years, all the while making a handful of Albion appearances in between those loan exits.
However, he never truly was given an extended opportunity to carve out an important first-team role with the Baggies, and left for Millwall last August having made just 12 senior appearances in all competitions for them.
Millwall certainly appear to have won that trade though, as the 23-year-old has been superb for the Lions in his debut term at The Den.
As per Sofascore, Taylor has made zero errors leading to a single shot or goal in the Championship this season, has won 70 per cent of his total duels and made the Team of the Week three times.
He was nominated for the Championship’s Player of the Month for January, and his three goals and two assists in the league have helped establish himself as integral part of Millwall’s defence.
Millwall have stolen West Brom’s future riches
An academy player who waited for his West Brom chance that never truly came, Taylor is now firmly on the pathway to banking Millwall major profits in the future.
Meanwhile, Albion’s summer centre-back signings have been largely disappointing.
Bielik and Mepham have been inconsistent, Campbell has had to spend a lot of time at right-back due to injury issues and is now injured himself, whilst Phillips has probably been the best of the bunch.
Hindsight always wins, but if West Brom could go back to late August 2025, they surely wouldn’t be letting Taylor walk out The Hawthorns door.
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