West Brom have struck gold with £2.5m transfer - Everton could seriously regret this | OneFootball

West Brom have profited on Everton’s mistake of letting Isaac Price leave as a youngster – he is now showing his worth in the blue and white stripes.

West Brom have made an impressive start to life under Ryan Mason.

The Baggies are unbeaten from their opening four second-tier outings, securing three victories and a draw to leave them in the automatic promotion places heading into the first international break.

Albion will be hopeful of keeping it going when they host Derby County at The Hawthorns, a potential banana skin of a game given their recent struggles to triumph over the Rams.

A player who has been instrumental to Albion’s early success is attacking midfielder Isaac Price, who is blossoming the longer his Baggies career goes on.

The Black Country outfit recruited the Northern Ireland international from Belgian Pro League side Standard Liege for a reported fee of £2.5m – a figure that is such a snip given what he has showcased in the blue and white stripes so far.

In his youth days, Price was on the books at Everton, but was let go of by the Merseyside outfit in 2023, which saw him make the move over to Belgium.

It’s been a meteoric rise over the last couple of seasons for Price, who is only going one way and is set to make his mark in the Premier League, with or without West Brom.

Producing sublime individual quality at both club level and on the international stage, Albion have taken full advantage of Everton’s mistake, with this error potentially handing the Baggies a gateway back to the top-flight after a five-year absence.

Isaac Price’s superb impact at West Brom

Isaac Price only became a West Brom player in the January transfer window of last season, highlighting the massive strides he’s taken in such a short space of time.

The Northern Ireland international agreed to a four-and-a-half-year contract at the club when signing on the dotted line, something that could help Albion receive a significant transfer fee to boost the coffers later down the line.

In the opening months as an Albion player, Price worked with Tony Mowbray, and was such a versatile asset to the 61-year-old.

Price played as an attacking and central midfielder, on both flanks, as a false-nine and even at right-back to cover the suspended Darnell Furlong, where he incidentally scored his first goal for the club from that position against Hull City.

While Price wasn’t always involved in goalmouth action last term, his ability to work hard, cover multiple positions and be effective in the press made him a valuable asset to the Albion team, and he was one of very few figures to come out of the end of the campaign with his head held high after the team faded away from the top six conversation.

Price highlighted that a target for him was to add more goals to his game, and he’s starting to get into the right positions, having a blistering start to the new campaign and having a fresh lease of life under Ryan Mason.

Instead of rotating where he plays, the ex-Tottenham Hotspur coach has kept the 21-year-old in the number 10 position for all the opening four games, the position he can be most dangerous at, and that’s been proven by his regular goalscoring and chance creation.

Price netted on the opening weekend against Blackburn Rovers, using his predatory instincts to nip in and finish off a scramble, before he was the man of the moment at Wrexham, bursting the Red Dragons' homecoming back to the Championship with a brace in a pulsating 3-2 victory.

He produced two very different finishes at the Racecourse Ground, sweeping in a low Tom Fellows cross before using his head to great effect to turn home Mikey Johnston’s sublime delivery, with the Irishman developing the habit of timing his runs to perfection.

Meanwhile, he notched an assist for Johnston’s excellent strike against Portsmouth, and he’ll be hopeful of keeping this run of form going, which will be so crucial to Albion maintaining their place towards the top end of the table.

Isaac Price has been a snip for West Brom

Isaac Price is a player who is on the rise, and he’s demonstrated his talents not only with Albion, but for Northern Ireland on the international stage too, most recently producing a smart finish from a set-piece against Germany in a World Cup qualification game – albeit it ended in a 3-1 defeat.

Albion have struggled with creative sparks for a number of years now, but it seems to be that they’ve found the main man to help the goals flow at the top end of the pitch – a recipe for success now the Baggies have revamped their backline with proven Championship experience and are keeping goals conceded to a minimum.

Ryan Mason’s system and instructions are clearly getting the best out of his game, and for just £2.5m, he has been one of the best bargain buys Albion have made in a long time.

It’s testament to the transfer policy that Bilkul Football have implemented since taking over the club, making a huge profit on the likes of Torbjorn Heggem as well as helping Tom Fellows to thrive and earn the club a handsome pay packet.

Price will certainly command a much higher fee than those two if he does move on, and that’s likely to be after this season, particularly if Albion don’t return to the Premier League.

So the main objective now for the club is to get back to the top-flight in order to keep hold of Price, with his individual flair and quality potentially enough to establish the Baggies back as top-flight regulars if all goes according to plan, which has been the ambition of controlling shareholder Shilen Patel.

Whatever comes next, West Brom will always be grateful to Everton for making a big mistake in letting Isaac Price go, with this decision potentially pivotal to Albion reinventing themselves among England’s elite sides after a period of decline.