West Brom: Everton were the winners from deadline day £6m deal - View | OneFootball

West Brom's signing of Victor Anichebe on deadline day in 2013 proved a poor one

After a difficult start to the 2013/14 season which had seen them go winless in the Premier League, West Brom moved to bolster their ranks and signed Nigerian international striker Victor Anichebe from Everton on deadline day.

The striker, who had spent his entire career at Everton until that point, moved to The Hawthorns for a fee worth £6million in September 2013, and on paper it looked a decent signing for the Baggies given the reputation he had developed at Goodison Park.

Anichebe would spend the next three years at the Hawthorns, but was unable to live up to his full potential and the £6million price-tag, and it's fair to say that not many West Brom fans were gutted when he departed for Sunderland in the summer of 2016.

Victor Anichebe's time at West Brom was a difficult one

Anichebe joined a West Brom side that was struggling at the beginning of the 2013/14 season, and things didn't get any better after his arrival either.

The Baggies were battling relegation, and had won just three games before Christmas, meaning Anichebe wasn't exactly playing in a side that was creating plenty of opportunities for him to score.

It took him until December and his 9th Premier League appearance to find the back of the net for the first time, and he'd add just two more over the course of the entire campaign as the Baggies finished 17th, just three points above the relegation zone.

The 2014/15 campaign was a more successful one for West Brom, particularly after Tony Pulis took over at the turn of the year, but Anichebe was still struggling in front of goal, and he scored just three league goals yet again, making just 11 starts thanks to injury and falling down the pecking order.

In fairness, the Nigerian international did also score three times in the FA Cup that season, scoring once against Gateshead and a brace against Birmingham City, and his combined tally of six goals for the season was his best in a Baggies' shirt.

The 2015/16 campaign brought the curtain down on Anichebe's time at The Hawthorns, and it was his worst season of the lot as he made just 14 appearances in all competitions, failing to score.

The Nigerian international was released at the end of the 15/16 campaign and joined the Baggies' Premier League rivals Sunderland.

In total, Anichebe played 63 times for West Brom and scored just nine times, a poor return which failed to justify his price-tag.

Everton were the winners of Victor Anichebe's £6million move to West Brom

Given the £6million fee they received for him, selling Anichebe to West Brom proved to be an excellent piece of business for the Toffees, and they sold him at the right time in hindsight.

West Brom, on the other hand, would have had huge regrets about forking out so much money for Anichebe, with £6million being a considerably larger fee than it is now, 11 years on.

After leaving West Brom, Anichebe had a brief spell with Sunderland before ending his career in China with Beijing Enterprises Group, and the Toffees certainly saw the best of the Nigerian, whose career went on a downward spiral after leaving Goodison Park.

On paper, it looked as if Anichebe was a good signing for West Brom, but his time in the Black Country was a miserable one, and the Baggies surely regretted sanctioning it.

With the 2024 summer transfer deadline day just around the corner, the Baggies will be hoping for much better luck this time around if they sanction any last-gasp deals.