West Brom will find it hard not to compare summer deal with Stoke City | OneFootball

The Baggies will view Nathan Lowe's successful Walsall loan with disappointment, since Reyes Cleary is struggling for gametime.

Mat Sadler’s Walsall side have enjoyed a fantastic start to the League Two season and will go into Christmas Day sat at the summit of the table, with a healthy 6-point gap between them and their nearest rivals.

Stoke City loanee Nathan Lowe has been key to their success, with the youngster having already notched 10 league goals and four assists from just 18 games.

According to Darren Witcoop, the Potters are weighing up the possibility of recalling Lowe from the high-flying Saddlers.

However, West Bromwich Albion will surely be watching the Lowe deal play out with envy. The Baggies also loaned their own young attacking talent out to the League Two side in the form of Reyes Cleary, but the winger has had nowhere near the same level of success.

Cleary has hardly featured for Walsall, leaving West Brom to potentially wish they’d sent their promising talent elsewhere in the fourth tier.

West Brom will surely look at Lowe’s success and be disappointed

Loan moves have always been crucial to the development of young footballers. They allow top clubs to send their best talent out to lower divisions to gain valuable experience of men’s football, without the pressure or expectation of playing for their first-team.

At Walsall currently there are two prime examples of a fantastic loan deal and, at the same time, one which simply hasn’t worked.

Given the success that Lowe has had, Carlos Corberan and the West Brom hierarchy must surely be looking at Stoke with envy.

Lowe has already gained a huge amount of experience, having started all but four of Walsall’s league games so far. Stoke will be delighted by the progress he has made in such a short space of time.

With 13 goals and six assists in all competitions, Lowe has already proven himself to be extremely capable at League Two level, something which provides an extremely valuable benchmark for Stoke as to how far away he is from being ready to feature in their first-team squad.

Another aspect of his loan spell that has been impressive is the impact he has had in big games. The 19-year-old striker has already scored against Notts County, AFC Wimbledon, Crewe, Grimsby and Chesterfield, who are all currently sat inside League Two’s top ten, as well as a brace to dump Huddersfield out of the EFL Cup back in August.

On the other hand, Cleary has played just 86 minutes of league football all season for the Saddlers, leaving West Brom to wonder what could have been.

Cleary has really struggled at Walsall

Cleary has found gametime hard to come by at Walsall so far. He’s made just three substitute appearances in the league – totalling just 86 minutes of football altogether. Saturday’s 2-0 win away at Harrogate Town was the first time the young winger has even been named in the matchday squad for a league game since 5th October.

He has struggled to force his way into Sadler’s 3-5-2 system, with Connor Barrett and Liam Gordon having started as the wing-back pairing for all but one of Walsall’s 19 league games.

Cleary has featured in all four of the Saddlers’ Vertu Trophy games so far, but the Baggies would’ve been hoping for so much more.

West Brom would’ve had significantly higher expectations for the 20-year-old. He had several eye-catching seasons in academy football, including 2022/23 when he netted 19 goals from only 17 games across Premier League 2 and its cup competition.

He’s already made seven senior appearances for the Baggies, but they will likely be forced to re-assess their plan for his development if his Walsall spell continues on its current trajectory.