West Brom lost out to Stoke City in Jamie Donley transfer battle - he may now "regret" decision though | OneFootball

Jamie Donley went to Stoke rather than West Brom during the summer, and FLW have asked our WBA fan pundit whether he made the right choice.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

While Stoke City have had a good start to the 2025-26 Championship season, one player who has found it more of a struggle than he might have expected is their Tottenham loanee attacker Jamie Donley.

Donley has only made three appearances so far this season for the Potters and has yet to find the net, and this may cause some degree of frustration for supporters of West Bromwich Albion, who were closely linked to a loan move for Donley during the summer - only to see Stoke move in and take their place.

With all of this in mind, FLW have spoken to our resident Baggies fan pundit Callum Burgess, and have asked him whether he feels that Donley should have joined his club instead, and whether West Brom would have been able to offer the striker more game-time than he's managed for Stoke so far this season.

Jamie Donley may regret his decision to choose to move to Stoke City over West Brom

Callum feels that the form of another West Bromwich Albion player may also have limited his game-time at The Hawthorns, with Isaac Price being a star in the number 10

"I don't think that, with the form of Isaac Price, Donley would have been able to make much of an impact in his preferred number ten position," Callum told FLW.

"But he would have given us more options in that area with the injuries suffered by Daryl Dike and Tammer Bany, which means that Price has been forced to play quite a lot of minutes, apart from when we've subbed on Josh Maja alongside Heggebo when chasing a goal, in quite a few games.

"Personally, I do rate Jamie Donley, so I'm a bit surprised that he's not done more at Stoke City so far in the time he's spent there.

"I think that perhaps there might be some regret on his part that he did go to Stoke City rather than another side, whether that's West Bromwich Albion or elsewhere."

Jamie Donley may have been a victim of Stoke's success, but may be a beneficiary of their recent slump

Jamie Donley is certainly highly-rated, and had an outstanding season in League One for Leyton Orient in 2024-25, where he earned national headlines for his 50-yard goal against Manchester City in the FA Cup - although that ended up recorded as an own goal - and ended the season as their Young Player of the Season and Supporters Player of the Season.

Having had such an excellent 2024-25 season in League One, there was considerable speculation over whether he could step up a level, and West Bromwich Albion were considered among the favourites to secure his signature for 2025-26 because of Donley's previous connections to the new Albion head coach Ryan Mason, with whom he worked at Spurs.

But Donley's game-time this season at the Bet365 Stadium has so far been highly limited.

The attacking midfielder has only made three appearances from the bench in the Championship for them so far this season, totaling 49 minutes on the pitch, and has so far failed to score. He did make two full appearances for them in the EFL Cup as well, but failed to find the net in either of those matches, either.

At the time of the confirmation of this loan move to Stoke, Donley spoke to the club's official website about his reasons for making this decision, telling them that: "I had a few teams after me, but I decided on Stoke when the gaffer [Mark Robins] called while I was away on tour.

"The way he wants to play, both in terms of attacking and defending, definitely suits me."

It may well be that Donley has been a victim of Stoke's success. Few were expecting them to head towards the top of the table in the way that they did in August.

But, just as he may have been a victim of that success, he may also be a beneficiary of their recent tail-off in form. Stoke have now failed to win any of their last four Championship matches, with a defeat and three draws dropping them to fifth place in the table, and that may persuade Mark Robins to shuffle his pack after the upcoming international break.

Few doubt Donley's talent, and there may be further opportunities to come.