£7m West Brom transfer is turning into a nightmare | OneFootball

West Bromwich Albion's £7 million signing of Daryl Dike in 2022 has been disastrous and it keeps getting worse.

West Bromwich Albion are embarking upon a Championship season in which they will be expecting to push for the top six and the play-off places, but the club will have to be close to giving up on United States international striker Daryl Dike to help them with their push.

The 25-year-old Oklahoma-born attacker joined the Baggies in the January transfer window of 2022 for a fee believed to be in the region of £7 million, and he has shown glimpses of his quality at The Hawthorns.

In fact, on the final day of last season, Albion relegated Luton Town by hammering the Hatters by five goals to three, Dike made his only start of the campaign and provided an assist as well as scoring for interim boss James Morrison’s side.

That performance would have given West Brom supporters hope that Dike could now finally put together a full season for the club, having been injury-free since early February.

However, just days’ out from the beginning of the 2025/26 campaign, the former Barnsley loanee has now suffered yet another injury blow.

Dike dealt yet another injury blow

As confirmed by the club, Dike is set to miss the start of the season due to a thigh injury sustained in pre-season.

It has been confirmed that both he and attacking midfielder Tammer Bany, who has suffered a hamstring injury, will miss the opening few months of the season and will begin their reintegration into first-team training until the September international break.

Dike has been at The Hawthorns for three and a half seasons now, and yet he has only made 43 appearances across all competitions for the club.

Having been a big-money addition, a return of just 43 games played is more than disastrous for both the player and club, with Dike still having a year left on his contract.

His relentless injury issues, which have ranged from hamstring issues to repeated Achilles injuries, and now a thigh injury, have certainly had to set West Brom back.

It was a significant outlay in terms of his transfer fee, but it has also led to Baggies managers not being aware of whether he will form part of their squad, thus causing damage to their overall planning, as well as perhaps negatively impacting their business in the market, unable to spend much more after the significant outlay, as well leaving them short in attack.

Dike has the ability and a year to prove himself

If Dike can return to first-team training and football from September, then he will have the rest of the season to prove himself worthy of a contract at West Brom.

In terms of his actual ability, as depicted in that final day thrashing of Luton, there is a lot of quality with the United States international, and he has a respectable goal per minute ratio with a lot of substitute appearances coming in those 43 matches, and yet still nine goals scored.

His goalscoring form at Oakwell was what had made Valerien Ismael and West Brom bring him into the midlands in January 2022, with the American notching nine goals in 19 appearances for the Tykes as they finished fifth in the Championship.

The ability is there with Dike, but his inability to remain remotely available for a consistent period of time has and is significantly holding him back, leading to his move to West Brom to, if not already, now be fairly categorised as a disaster.