#4 Jay Rodriguez – £12.0m

Embed from Getty Images

In West Brom’s last season in the Premier League, Tony Pulis identified Jay Rodriguez as the man to solve Albion’s goal drought and spent a hefty chunk of the transfer budget on bringing him in.

Rodriguez would score seven goals and provide one assist in 37 games before West Brom were relegated.

However, the Championship seemed to revitalise Rodriguez’s hunger for goals and he bagged 22 of them in 47 games alongside Dwight Gayle (who also scored 22 goals).

It should have been enough to guide the Baggies to promotion but a unsteady defence meant that points were unnecessarily dropped throughout the season, and they lost to rivals Villa in the play-offs.

Rodriguez was sold to Burnley in July 2019 for £5m.

#3 Salomon Rondon – £12.0m

Embed from Getty Images

The signing of Salomon Rondon for £13m from Zenit in August 2015 smashed yet another club transfer record. This was a player who had Champions League experience with Zenit and had played for Malaga in La Liga before then, so a move to the Premier League was always on the cards for him.

In his first season with the Baggies, he netted nine goals and provided two assists; he followed his up with eight goals and two assists the next season; before scoring seven goals and notching three assists in the 2017-18 campaign — the year Albion were relegated.

Although many fans were desperately hoping for Rondon to stay with the Baggies in the Championship, realistically everyone knew that he was more suited to the top flight; so when Newcastle took him on loan for the 2018-19 season, nobody was too surprised.

The Venezuelan now plays for Dalian Yifang in China under former Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez.

#2 Nacer Chadli – £13.0m

Embed from Getty Images

Nacer Chadli probably could have been a star at the Hawthorns, had he put in effort. The Belgium international was frequently criticised by the fans throughout his time with the Baggies for walking when he should be running, and misplacing passes seemingly through lack of care.

He had just come from Tottenham Hotspur where he was, to put it bluntly, spoilt, in terms of the club’s stature and admiration from the fans. So when he arrived at West Brom, you can imagine that he likely expected a similar situation — but he hadn’t proved himself, and never did, so naturally the fans were indifferent towards him.

He notched up five goals and five assists in his debut season with the club, then virtually disappeared in the second season, only playing five games.

He was rumoured to be sidelined with an injury, yet was conveniently fit and raring to go the moment he was called up to the 2018 World Cup, where he flourished with Belgium, making fans question why he couldn’t replicate such performances at the Hawthorns each week.

Once the World Cup was over, Chadli joined Monaco for £10m.

Pages: 1234