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West Brom fans will be praying they can hold on to Josh Maja this summer

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...

Despite looking like play-off hopefuls for much of the season, West Brom will now definitely still be in the Championship next season following a late slump in results.

While that brings few benefits, it does mean that the Baggies can start their squad planning for next season, dispensing with players they no longer need and bringing in new ones.

However, this period will also be the time when they have to try and fend off interest in their top-performing stars.

With that in mind, we ask our West Brom Fan Pundit, Callum, which player he feels is most important for his club to hold onto this summer.

Keeping Josh Maja at West Brom is crucial

Speaking to Football League World, Callum said: “Personally, the player that I really do not want to lose ahead of next season would be Josh Maja.

“I think our downturn in form started when he got injured away at Swansea on New Year's Day.

“Not only did we lose his goals – he was on 12 goals in 26 games, and I think if he was fully fit he’d have had a really good shot at the Golden Boot – but outside of that, you of course lost his link-up play and the other positive contributions that he brings to the team.

“When Adam Armstrong did come in, we thought he'd address the issues we had while losing Maja where, of course, he scored so many goals last season, so maybe Albion were going to take a different approach, but that never really came to fruition and Albion looked a much worse team without Josh Maja.

“So I think, personally, if I could choose anyone in the squad to be certain to be an Albion player next season, it’d be Josh Maja.”

A new Maja contract could be Albion’s most important business

If West Brom have any ambition to be a strong promotion chaser in the next few years, they must hold on to Maja.

His 12 goals in the Championship this season, despite him having been injured for just under half of the season, stand as the most of any player for the Baggies.

And it’s not even close. Alex Mowatt and Karlan Grant are joint second in the club’s scoring charts, but Maja has almost double the goals they’ve managed.

Maja is far and away the most lethal attacker at the Hawthorns – keep him fit, and at the club, and they’ll have a fighting chance in the promotion battle.

The silver lining to the 26-year-old’s injury is that he hasn’t been in the shop window for the second half of the season: had he been sat around the 20-25 goal mark, as his scoring frequency suggests he may have been before injury, then interest might have been too fierce for the Baggies to fend off.

But his injury means he may slip under the radar slightly, with clubs hesitant to gamble on a player still yet to return from a long lay-off.

Maja signed a three-year contract, worth an estimated £17k-a-week, when joining West Brom in 2023, meaning he will enter the last year of his contract this summer – the club must move fast to secure his future at the club while they still can, or risk losing him for nothing in 12 months.

West Brom must keep hold of Maja this summer to show any level of ambition; a new contract would be a very strong signal for supporters like Callum.