West Brom must make brutal transfer decision this summer | OneFootball

The Baggies must part ways with Daryl Dike this summer after a disastrous spell.

West Brom will be hopeful of securing their Championship status under Eric Ramsay, in what has been a disastrous campaign so far.

The Baggies are in real danger of dropping through the League One trapdoor, with these coming months crucial to the club gaining stability after a rocky period of struggles both on and off the pitch.

While Albion have tried to revamp the squad under Bilkul, the team struggled to get consistent results under Ryan Mason, which led to the former Tottenham Hotspur and Hull City midfielder being sacked in January 2026 - winning nine of his 27 games in charge.

And so far the change in the dugout to Ramsay has done little to inspire confidence in the dressing room either, although a goalless draw against Stoke City and changing to a four at the back system could inspire confidence and optimism that the club can get out of the mire.

Regardless of the outcome of the season and which division the Black Country outfit ends up playing in, there are many players approaching the end of their contracts, giving the club the chance to overhaul the squad and look towards the future.

When sanctioning exits, American forward Daryl Dike has to be the priority, with the frontman unable to stay fit for a very large portion of his near five-year stay, while he is failing to pull up many trees when on the pitch either.

In what has been a calamitous investment of £7m for the club, it appears they may have to bite the bullet and let him go on a free transfer at the end of the campaign.

Daryl Dike’s struggles at West Brom

It’s safe to say that West Brom supporters have been left deeply frustrated by Daryl Dike’s inability to stay on the pitch for much of his stay at The Hawthorns.

Joining for a reported £7m fee from Orlando City back in 2021, Dike’s opening season for Albion saw him make just two appearances, as a hamstring injury on his home debut against Peterborough United ruled him out for the remainder of the term.

Heading into 2022-23 under Steve Bruce, the American international was sidelined for 19 games with a thigh injury, before earning his longest run of playing time in an Albion shirt under Carlos Corberan, featuring in 22 consecutive games and scoring seven goals in the process.

But over that and the following season, Dike suffered two gut-wrenching Achilles tendon ruptures, meaning he didn’t make a consistent return to action until February 2025, when Albion’s play-off hopes crumbled under Tony Mowbray.

In the 2025-26 campaign, Dike would go on to miss the opening nine games of the season with a thigh injury sustained in training, and that tweak would see him positioned as the third-choice striker under Ryan Mason.

In Mason’s six months at the club, the former Barnsley forward featured only seven times and earned just 31 minutes of second-tier action, with the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder clearly unable to trust Dike and favouring the services of Aune Heggebo or Josh Maja.

Credit has to go to Dike for keeping himself fit for the majority of the 2025-26 campaign, and there is hope an extended run of playing time can transpire under Eric Ramsay.

Encouraging signs have been offered with a 30-minute run out off the bench against Derby County at Pride Park towards the end of January, while he started last weekend's stalemate with Stoke City for the first time since the final day of last season, although service was limited, and he wasn’t able to get on the scoresheet.

West Brom should look to part ways with Daryl Dike at the end of the season

In Daryl Dike’s start against Stoke City and in Albion’s FA Cup third round victory at Swansea City under interim boss James Morrison, Dike flattered to deceive, and you’d want a lot more potency from him in the final third if he was to justify earning a new contract.

Of course, it’s very difficult when he hasn’t played a lot of football in recent times, and that rust is evident to see. He could develop back into the dangerous Championship striker we’ve seen from years gone by with more game-time, but at the moment he doesn’t appear a figure the club should be keeping on the books when he can’t find the back of the net when called upon.

Whether his run in the team for the remainder of the season has any baring on whether the club actually do hand him a new deal remains to be seen. In reality, Dike has played the number of games for West Brom in five seasons that you would expect to see in one or two, and they may not want to take the risk of another injury cropping up that keeps him out for a while, even though he hasn’t had any injury troubles in recent memory.

For all parties, it seems Dike’s stint at West Brom has to come to an end. With the increased competition in the forward department, the American international has to be at a club where he is guaranteed to get regular games and minutes, as that’s the only way he’s going to get his career back on track and return to being the bullish frontman we saw back at Barnsley in 2021.

While Dike has shown himself to be a promising Championship talent, his time at West Brom has been nothing short of a disaster. The club has got very little return from such a hefty investment on the playing side, while they are set to see nothing back from the £7m they spent to acquire his services in the first place.

It’s bound to have given the West Brom hierarchy a severe headache with all of his struggles, through no fault of his own, but it seems the best course of action would be to put a stop to a partnership that just seems destined to never work out.