West Brom bargain punt could land them £17m in shrewd transfer | OneFootball

The Baggies have a big transfer decision to make over Josh Maja heading into January.

West Bromwich Albion will aim to continue fighting towards promotion to the Premier League as they enter a busy festive period.

The Baggies currently sit narrowly outside the top six, with a remarkable nine draws from their last 10 Championship outings leaving Albion supporters frustrated with Carlos Corberan over the style of play and tactics used within games.

In a stark contrast to last season, the Baggies’ struggles and slump down the second tier table has been owed to their poor record at The Hawthorns, with Carlos Corberan’s men ranking 21st for points won on their home patch, with only two victories secured from 8 games.

Meanwhile, Albion boast the second-best away record in the division, securing four wins and five draws from 10 trips on the road.

West Brom will be hoping that The Hawthorns can become a fortress again heading into a busy winter schedule, and that talisman Josh Maja can keep his regular goalscoring form going to keep the club looking up the table rather than over their shoulders.

The Nigerian international’s 10 goals so far this season in the Championship has led to interest arriving from an overseas club, and Albion have a decision to make about his future with such a significant transfer fee touted.

The rise of Josh Maja at West Brom

Maja arrived at The Hawthorns in August 2023 on a free transfer after leaving French side Bordeaux and penned a three-year contract until 2026. With high expectations among the Albion faithful in his debut season, it went far from according to plan for the 25-year-old.

In his opening couple of months in a blue and white shirt, Maja sustained an ankle ligament injury during a goalless draw with Bristol City and was sidelined for eight weeks.

After returning and making his first start away to Sunderland in December 2023, the frontman would go on to suffer a much more serious ankle ligament injury, which kept Maja out for the remainder of that season.

West Brom and Corberan decided not to involve Maja in the two legs of their play-off semi-final with Southampton, with a firm focus on getting the forward ready for this season. The patience shown has been greatly rewarded so far with the frontman reaching double figures for goals heading into the festive run.

Maja has been directly involved in 11 of the 19 goals the Baggies have scored during this campaign, illustrating how much of a key cog to the West Brom system he is with his silky link-up play and clinical edge when put in front of goal.

Links to a move away for Josh Maja

With Maja finding the back of the net at such a consistent rate, naturally, teams will be looking to prize him away from the Black Country.

In early November, it had been reported by Spanish outlet Super Deporte that La Liga side Celta Vigo were eyeing up a move for the Maja, as they search for more firepower in a bid to remain in La Liga come the end of this campaign.

Maja has seemingly been lined up as a long-term replacement for former Liverpool forward Iago Aspas, who is coming to the latter stages of his career at 37.

From the same report by Super Deporte, Albion owner Shilen Patel and the club are only willing to listen to offers upwards of €20m (£17m), with the Spanish newspaper believing Celta Vigo are confident they can pay the asking price.

With such minimal cash spent on securing Maja’s services, the recruitment team inside The Hawthorns have done exceptionally well to have such a high transfer fee willing to be paid for their star striker.

But Albion do face a dilemma of what to do as the January transfer window approaches, with such a key decision ultimately deciding where they find themselves in the table come the end of the season.

The first choice would be to accept Celta Vigo’s offer and invest such an influx of money back into the squad for other key positions. The Baggies have desperately suffered with nailing down one player for the number ten role in Corberan’s system and have also suffered an injury crisis of late in the heart of their defence.

The Baggies would have to depend on Daryl Dike keeping fit to lead the line for the long-term future too, as he continues to progress back from an Achilles injury that has kept him out of action for the last eight months, but little confidence can be put into that hope with the American’s career being so disrupted with multiple injuries in recent times.

The other option is for Albion to rebuff Celta Vigo’s advances and keep hold of Maja, securing a healthy number of goals at the top end of the pitch to keep them in the promotion mix come the end of the season.

The West Midlands club would likely have to sell fringe players such as Jed Wallace and John Swift in order to bring in any new arrivals to help support Maja, but that will prove to be a difficult task with neither managing to record a single attacking contribution all season for the club.

With the Baggies still facing financial implications from Guochuan Lai’s tenure, January will be a stick or twist time regarding Maja, and such a healthy profit will be tempting to take as the club navigates its way through a challenging period.