Comment: Striker should top West Brom’s Christmas wish list
It may be the most wonderful time of the year, as the song goes, but it definitely hasn’t been the hap-happiest season of all.
When the last transfer window shut, signalling the end of summer, everything was rosy in the Albion garden.
An unbeaten start to the season had lifted the Baggies into the top six after three games and they’d also brushed aside lower-league opposition in the Carabao Cup.
Tony Pulis had just been handed a contract extension, and Albion’s business in the window had been heralded in some quarters as some of the shrewdest in the league.
Six new faces were added for under £40million, gaping holes in the squad were plugged, and the average age was brought down.
It looked like a group with a stable head coach capable of pushing on from last season’s top 10 finish.
Four dismal months later and the Baggies find themselves second-bottom, with a new manager, and on a club-record winless streak of 18 games in all competitions.
The best thing Father Christmas can bring Albion fans this year is three points, and nobody will care how neatly it’s wrapped.
All of this means that, as we enter January, there could be more trading than was initially expected.
Alan Pardew has his own ideas for the team, and has already hinted that he wants more fire-power up front, unsurprising considering the team only netted twice in his first five games.
The board were not expecting this, of course, and so the club’s wage bill is already at its limit, which means Pardew needs to off-load players before he can bring any in.
Grzegorz Krychowiak may have struggled to live up to his reputation, but he is unlikely to be returning to parent club Paris Saint-Germain.
Which means, as painful as it may be to lose yet another captain six months after Darren Fletcher departed, Jonny Evans may well be sacrificed to the tune of £30m-plus to fund a January spend.
What Pardew needs is clear as day. Only rock-bottom Swansea have scored fewer goals in the league this season, and even though Albion have looked more threatening in recent weeks, they’ve still only netted five times in the last nine games.
If he goes, Evans will need to be replaced, because it would leave the Baggies with just three centre-backs for the second half of the season.
But as long as a young buck comes in for around £10-£15m, Pardew could have up to £20m to work with further up the pitch.
Goal-scoring strikers are like gold-dust, and in this digital age of recruitment when almost every player is known to almost every club, Albion will be competing with roughly 12 other teams for the same signatures.
The head coach is a long-term admirer of Danny Ings, who will be allowed to leave Liverpool on loan in January, and provided he keeps himself fit, he could be a shrewd addition.
A creative midfielder would be next on the list because of James Morrison and Nacer Chadli’s injury problems, and a right-back wouldn’t be far behind because Craig Dawson may be needed inside and Allan Nyom has looked shaky at times.
If there is any cash left over, a young goalkeeper would be a welcome stocking filler.
Boaz Myhill is 35 now, and Ben Foster could use some sprightly competition.
Manchester United’s Sam Johnstone is of interest, but it will be difficult to prise him away from loan club Villa, where he is currently playing week in, week out, in order to be an understudy.
That would be the cherry on top of the Christmas pudding though, because it is up the other end of the pitch that Pardew needs as many gifts as possible.
