Man Utd transfer was worth every penny for West Brom even though they made a loss: View | OneFootball

West Brom signing Sam Johnstone from Manchester United was worth every penny even if they lost him for free.

Highlights

West Bromwich Albion have seen many players come and go from the football club as they bounced between the Premier League and the Championship.

Some of these players have been successful for the club, as they have helped them get out of the second tier or helped them grow as a top-flight team.

Meanwhile, there have been other players who have come to the club and disappointed massively, especially if they have cost West Brom a fair bit in transfer money.

There are no doubts about it that Sam Johnstone was definitely a success at the Hawthorns, even more so, that he was relatively cheap from Manchester United.

Sam Johnstone is a product of the Manchester United academy, as he rose through their academy groups at an early age.

Unfortunately for the goalkeeper, he never made a competitive appearance for the Red Devils, with his success coming away from the club.

Johnstone had several loan spells away from Old Trafford at teams such as Doncaster Rovers, Preston, and Aston Villa before leaving the club on a permanent basis.

The Englishman just enjoyed a rather successful 2017/18 loan season at Villa, and in the 2018 summer transfer window, he was then sold to West Brom.

The Baggies decided to prize the goalkeeper away from Manchester United by paying £6.5 million, with him signing a four-year deal.

It will have been considered a lot of money at the time, but it was a deal that turned out to be worth every penny for the club.

The Sam Johnstone transfer was worth every penny for West Brom, despite the loss

The move to West Brom was a great opportunity for Sam Johnstone, as it put an end to the constant loans away from Manchester United and meant he could settle at a club for more than a season.

That is what the Englishman did, as he instantly secured the number one spot at the Hawthorns and would go on to keep that for four seasons.

His first campaign at the club set the benchmark, as he played in all 46 league games, during which he conceded a respectable 62 goals and kept nine clean sheets.

He would then follow it up in the 2019/20 season by playing every league game again, but this time he kept more clean sheets and conceded fewer goals.

Johnstone conceded just 45 goals, and he kept an impressive 14 clean sheets in a campaign that was arguably his best in a West Brom shirt as the club achieved promotion to the Premier League.

That 2019/20 season saw Johnstone concede just one goal per game, as he was averaging a staggering 2.4 saves per match.

Furthermore, he made a total of 112 saves that season, which helped him keep 14 clean sheets in the league, as per Sofascore.com.

The 31-year-old’s two other campaigns at the Hawthorns were also impressive; it was just that the goalkeeper suffered a few injuries that meant he missed some games of football.

Johnstone’s final season with the Baggies saw him play 36 games in the Championship, during which he conceded 33 goals, and he kept 15 clean sheets in the process.

That season was his last at West Brom as it was his final year of his contract and new terms weren’t agreed, which meant he left the Baggies for free.

Johnstone would leave the Midlands side and join Crystal Palace on a free transfer in 2022, a deal that will disappoint West Brom as they were unable to get any money for a goalkeeper that was performing very well.

However, while West Brom will be disappointed about that, they will look back on the signing of the shot stopper with great fondness. They secured a very impressive signing, as shown by what Johnstone did during his time at the club.

Since leaving West Brom, he has shown how good he is, as he is now a regular starter in the Premier League and has been selected for England on numerous occasions. West Brom will definitely be pleased that they were able to have Johnstone at their club for the four years he was there.