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Few Championship deals can rival the success of West Brom’s move for Dwight Gayle

West Brom’s loan deal for Dwight Gayle will forever go down as a stroke of genius, knowing what he would go on to achieve that season.

The striker had fallen down the pecking order with the Magpies and wound up being used in a loan-swap deal with Salomon Rondon.

The Baggies would never look back, as Gayle recreated his immense form for Newcastle in the Championship a couple of years earlier.

They ultimately missed out on promotion, but they couldn’t have asked any more of Gayle.

A unique deal saw Gayle arrive at the Hawthorns

Loan deals are commonplace in football, even for senior players, to save their wages in the accounts if they aren’t going to be used in the upcoming season.

Swap deals are less frequent, but do happen, when two clubs feel they would have use for one of the other’s stars. What is relatively rare is a combination of the two, but that’s exactly how Gayle arrived at West Brom.

The English striker lit up the Championship in 2016/17 season with 23 goals, lifting the Magpies out of the second tier, but struggled to pull that form through to the Premier League, with just six goals in 35 appearances.

He was staring down another season in the top tier as a bit-part player, so it was viewed as the best option to get him back out and playing football.

At the same time, West Brom striker Rondon went the opposite way for the season, with Baggies boss at the time, Darren Moore, calling it a deal “in the interests of both clubs”.

Gayle reaffirmed his Championship quality with West Brom

Moore was spot on.

Just as he had for Newcastle, Gayle once again netted a staggering 23 goals for the Baggies in the 2018/19 season, this time adding eight assists into the bargain too.

The deal worked out pretty well for both parties, as Rondon went on to register 18 goal involvements in the Premier League for the Magpies.

It was sweetened even further for West Brom with Sky Sports News reporting at the time they also received a £2m loan fee for their troubles.

Given the money involved, there are few Championship moves that will ever rival it for value.

West Brom may have had one final wish with Gayle

Despite such strong work from Gayle, leading the line for the Baggies for the most part, it wasn’t enough to send them back to the Premier League after crashing out of the play-offs on penalties against Aston Villa.

That was enough heartbreak on its own, but to make matters worse, it ended Gayle’s stay at the Hawthorns almost as quickly as it’d begun.

"No-one would like to keep Dwight more than myself," former West Brom technical director Luke Dowling said at the time. "Dwight's contract is a Premier League contract, and we will pay Premier League contracts, but we'll only do that once we're 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're doing everything right for this club.”

West Brom played a blinder when looking at Gayle’s loan deal on a one-season basis, but in the play-offs, they will feel they were just a couple of steps away from booking the striker in to create even more memories with the club.