It’s safe to say that this season has been a disaster for West Brom, who are now sitting in 12th in the Championship table, seven points off the play-offs with eight games to go – after Valerian Ismael’s dreadful spell as manager of the club, which led to him being sacked before being named manager of Besiktas.
While promotion back to the Premier League isn’t mathematically impossible, ensuring they don’t slip up and that all six teams above them do in three games or more is unlikely, and it looks like they will have to re-build this summer in order to mount a better challenge for the title next season.
However, losing one of their key men won’t help with that.
What’s the news?
According to a report from Turkish news outlet Haber365, Besiktas want to initially loan Daryl Dike for around £2.1m to £2.5m, with a view to then signing him permanently for a higher fee.
With the American still just 21-years-old and under contract until 2026, it’s unlikely the Baggies will part ways with the striker just yet, but if they do, they will want to at least recoup the £7m they spent on him to bring him to The Hawthorns in January.
Still time to shine in Midlands
Ismael could yet inflict more misery on the club’s fans, as he is now linked with making a move for new signing Dike.
The Frenchman’s time was marred with inconsistent results and if he returned to claim someone who could prove so vital to the Baggies, it would be nothing short of a disaster.
He’s played just 84 minutes of Championship football due to a hamstring injury suffered in January which he has just recovered from, and will likely take part in the club’s next game on Sunday – against nearby rivals Birmingham City.
If he can replicate the form he showed at Barnsley, where he scored nine goals in 22 games on loan there in the second half of last season, or the form he has shown throughout his time at Orlando City where he has scored 18 MLS goals in 35 games, he will surely become one of the top young strikers in the country.
New manager Steve Bruce needs to hold on to the exciting 21-year-old, and make him a key part of his plans for the rest of the season, as his clinical goalscoring ability could help steady the sinking ship and steer them back towards play-off contention.
That’s precisely why it would be a nightmare situation if he departed so soon, especially after such a sizeable investment too.
In other news: Sold at £13m, now worth £49.5m: WBA will have nightmares over 6ft4 “beast of a man”
