Opinion: West Brom may be regretting summer transfer call involving Cardiff after fresh player update | OneFootball

For West Bromwich Albion, the start to this season does feel as though it has been a rather frustrating one.

Following the appointment of Carlos Corberan as the club's head coach back in October 2022, there were signs to suggest that with a full season in charge this time around, the Spaniard could have the Baggies competing for a return to the Premier League.

However, off the field questions over the club's finances relating to owner repayments of loans to the club by chairman Guoachan Lai, will not have been eased by a summer transfer window that saw just three new senior players arrive at The Hawthorns.

On the pitch meanwhile, the start to the campaign has been a rather mixed one, with Corberan's side claiming two wins, two draws and two defeats from their opening six games of the Championship season, meaning they are currently languishing in mid-table in the early standings.

Now, the Baggies have been handed another setback on Tuesday, with the news that one of their summer signings, centre-forward Josh Maja, is expected to be out for up to eight weeks with an ankle ligament injury he suffered in the final minutes of his side's goalless draw with Bristol City on Saturday afternoon.

Losing any player for such a period of time would of course be a blow, but given the role Maja plays in this team, you do feel as though this is a particularly significant one for West Brom.

What does Josh Maja's injury mean for West Brom?

As supporters of the club will be well aware, Maja is not the only centre-forward struggling for fitness at The Hawthorns right now.

Daryl Dike has also been blighted by injury problems since he arrived at the club from Orlando City, back in January 2022.

Indeed, the American is currently expected to be out until December at the very earliest, as he continues his recovery from an Achilles issue he suffered back in April.

As a result, with Maja seemingly set to be out for a number of weeks as well, that leaves Brandon Thomas-Asante as the club's only fit, senior, recognised option in the centre-forward position.

While there can be no denying that Thomas-Asante has shown he is a capable option to fill that role in the Championship since he joined from Salford City last summer, it does mean Albion are walking a tightrope with regards to his fitness since any injury to him will leave them badly short on firepower to lead the line.

As a result, you wonder whether those in charge at The Hawthorns may now be regretting the decision they made with regards to one of the club's other striking options in the summer transfer window.

Should West Brom have kept Karlan Grant this summer?

While there was not a great deal of recruitment done by West Brom in the summer, that does not mean there were no exits sanctioned by the club.

One of those who did depart The Hawthorns is someone who could arguably have been a useful option for the Baggies now, amid the injury concerns they have around Dike and Maja, in the form of Karlan Grant.

In July, it was confirmed that West Brom has allowed Grant to join their Championship rivals Cardiff City, on a season-long loan.

Sanctioning that decision reduced the club's centre-forward options, whereas had they kept Grant, Corberan would now have some useful extra depth and an alternative to call upon to Thomas-Asante, over the course of the next couple of months.

Indeed, the 26-year-old has been something of a regular feature since he moved to the Welsh capital, suggesting he could have coped with such demands as well.

It is also worth noting that while he was not always the most highly-rated among Baggies fans, Grant has still scored 21 goals and provided six assists in 75 Championship appearances for the club to date.

That sort of return does suggest that had they kept him, the striker could have made some useful contributions to Corberan's side in the absence of Maja and Dike over the next few months, while also easing some of the pressure on Thomas-Asante in that role leading the line.

Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, as the saying goes, but in this case, it does seem as though there may be an argument that right now, the decision-makers at West Brom could be getting slightly worried that the decision to let Grant leave for Cardiff this summer, may come back to bite them in the next few weeks.