West Brom dodged a bullet with Dwight Gayle

A lot has been made this season about West Brom‘s goalscoring woes within the Championship however issues might have been a lot worse for Steve Bruce’s aspect had they signed Dwight Gayle.

The 32-year-old was closely linked with a transfer again to the Hawthorns in the course of the summer season, with reports suggesting that the Baggies held talks with each Gayle and Newcastle United however didn’t put collectively an appropriate monetary bundle.

Ultimately, he would join Stoke Metropolis on a free switch and given his earlier report within the Championship, it appeared like one thing of a coup for the Potters.

In his final two seasons within the second tier, Gayle has hit 23 goals on each events, first with Newcastle in 2016/17 after which once more with West Brom throughout a mortgage spell in 2018/19, so it’s straightforward to see why Bruce needed him again on the Hawthorns.

Nevertheless, he has didn’t impress throughout his time with Stoke Metropolis, with no goals in his opening 13 appearances for the membership, which means that he would have executed little to enhance West Brom’s present state of affairs, as they sit twenty second within the Championship desk with only one win to their title.

Who’s the higher striker?

Karlan Grant has come below a lot of criticism for his performances this season and rightfully so, along with his missed penalty towards Swansea Metropolis a microcosm of his poor season in entrance of objective, however the former Charlton Athletic man would nonetheless be a greater choice than Gayle on this Baggies assault.

The 25-year-old is West Brom’s joint-top scorer with three goals and averages 1.9 pictures per recreation, whereas Gayle is but to seek out the web for Stoke and has averaged simply 0.9 pictures per recreation, which once more emphasises that, on present kind, he wouldn’t have been the saviour in West Brom’s present predicament.

Due to this fact, Bruce could have dodged a bullet in lacking out on the striker, as he now appears to be like properly previous his finest, though the previous Newcastle boss would in all probability take any assist that he can get in the meanwhile, as he’s certainly dealing with the sack after extra dropped factors at dwelling to Luton this weekend.