West Brom didn’t look back after bold Newcastle United transfer decision | OneFootball

Despite being a controversial decision, the Baggies made the right call by not turning Dwight Gayle’s loan stay into a permanent one.

Heading into the 2019-20 campaign, West Brom were still reeling from a play-off semi-final defeat to eventual winners Aston Villa.

The Baggies were resigned to a second straight season of Championship football, as they were edged out on penalty kicks by their West Midlands rivals.

In the regular campaign, Albion finished fourth, with Jimmy Shan taking interim charge from March 2019 onwards after Darren Moore was sacked following a disappointing draw to then basement boys Ipswich Town.

The Baggies finishing fourth was a testament to the quality of the second tier that campaign, with an Albion team that included the likes of Harvey Barnes and Jay Rodriguez likely to secure automatic promotion in any other campaign.

And another second tier marksman they had on their books was Dwight Gayle, who had linked up at The Hawthorns on loan from Newcastle United for the season.

Unsurprisingly, he formed a special partnership alongside Rodriguez, with the duo netting a combined 46 goals that term – with Gayle notching 24.

After being such a success in the blue and white stripes, there were big calls from the Albion faithful to make his move permanent, but the Black Country opted against it, allowing the frontman to return to Newcastle in the top-flight.

And despite that being a controversial decision to make at the time, Albion would actually benefit from it, as Gayle’s career went on to sharply decline, while the Baggies went from strength-to-strength under Slaven Bilic.

Dwight Gayle’s career at The Hawthorns and West Brom rejection

West Brom’s ability to land Dwight Gayle on a loan deal was seen as a stroke of genius, and the Championship marksman didn’t disappoint when moving to B71.

Gayle had joined Albion as part of a loan swap deal with Salomon Rondon, with the Venezuelan international moving to St James Park and sealing a return back to the big time.

And the deal appeared to work out well for both parties, as Gayle went on to net a staggering 24 goals for the Baggies, as well as notching eight assists, while Rondon went on to register 18 goal involvements in the Premier League for the Magpies.

West Brom also received a sweetener in the deal too, as Sky Sports reported at the time that they also received a £2m loan fee to take Gayle for the season.

The Baggies were considered unlucky to not seal an immediate return to the top-flight given the quality in the division that term, and a slightly weakened league in 2019-20 was seen as Albion’s gateway back into the Premier League.

Therefore, adding Gayle back onto the books was seen as a no-brainer, with Albion retaining some goalscoring prowess at the top end of the pitch seen as vital to securing their aim of automatic promotion.

But to dismay, Albion supporters learned that the club had opted against signing Gayle on a permanent basis, with then Technical Director Luke Dowling admitting the club couldn’t afford to pay Premier League contracts when they remained in the Championship.

As reported by the BBC at the time, Dowling said: "Dwight's contract is a Premier League contract.

"We will pay Premier League contracts but only when we are back in the Premier League.

"I know it won't be the news Albion fans want to hear, but they need to trust us and know we are doing everything right for this football club."

Dowling added: "We don't want to keep players on big contracts and then have to lay off normal staff and make people redundant.

"We have good people behind the scenes. We want to do that and still have a really competitive wage bill on the pitch, which we will have next year."

West Brom profited in the wake of Dwight Gayle snub

Naturally, disappointment was etched onto the faces of most Albion supporters when it was revealed Dwight Gayle wouldn’t be coming back to The Hawthorns, with the loss of goals from himself and Jay Rodriguez raising questions over whether the Baggies would be promotion candidates heading into the 2019-20 term.

But all those fears would be alleviated when Slaven Bilic arrived to take over the reins at The Hawthorns, signing a two-year contract and setting a clear remit of returning to the Premier League.

Meanwhile, a very successful summer transfer window built an Albion team that would take the second tier by storm.

The additions of Grady Diangana and Matheus Pereira were crucial in making Albion such a free-flowing and dangerous outfit going forward, with the Baggies finding ways to cut opposition teams open with ease with such an added spark in the final third.

Albion lost just one of their opening 25 games in the second tier that season, away to eventual champions, Leeds United, netting three or more goals in four of those games.

A run of seven winless games at the turn of the year saw the likes of Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Brentford gain ground, although a respectable gap between Albion and the chasing pack would surface again when the COVID-19 pandemic grounded the season to a three-month halt.

The Baggies would, in the end, stumble over the finishing line when play resumed, owing much gratitude to Brentford’s mishaps against relegation-threatened Stoke City and Barnsley, with a 2-2 draw against QPR at The Hawthorns on the final day enough to seal their return to the top-flight, as Bilic’s men finished two points in front of Thomas Frank’s side.

The smiles on their faces would grow even wider as Gayle struggled to settle back into Premier League life with Newcastle, featuring just 20 times, with 10 starts and netting only four goals in that time.

It spelled the beginning of the end for Gayle’s career, with the forward netting just once over the next two seasons as his stint at Newcastle came to an undwhelming end, while he failed to have the desired impact when eventually dropping back into the second tier with Stoke City and Derby County.

Despite losing so many goals at the beginning of the season through the losses of Gayle and Rodriguez, Bilic had managed to build a team that shared goals from all over the pitch, while a talismanic number 10 in Pereira, who was destined to play in the Premier League and far too good for the Championship, gave them a consistent attacking outlet and a difference maker in games.

Albion and Luke Dowling were indeed correct not to run financial risks by offering Gayle a contract that they couldn’t afford, instead changing tact to build a different type of team who went on to achieve greater success than what Gayle could during his loan spell at the club.