West Brom got it massively wrong with £680k striker - he was a huge Baggies flop | OneFootball

West Brom wasted a significant six-figure fee on Polish striker Bartosz Slusarski

In the summer of 2007, West Brom bolstered their attacking unit with the signing of little-known Polish attacker Bartosz Ślusarski in their bid to return to the Premier League, having lost in the Championship play-off final to Derby County the season prior.

Ślusarski, who was well known in the Polish league early on in his career for being a prolific goalscorer at a young age, built up a decent reputation for himself as he scored eight goals in his second full season with Lech Poznan before netting another 10 league goals two seasons later.

The Polish striker caught the eye of clubs abroad and completed a loan move to Portuguese club, Leiria where he continued his goalscoring record with seven goals in 24 league games.

This led to West Brom making a move for Slusarski. However, what came next during his time in England was not what was expected from him.

He had two other short stints at EFL clubs, Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday, too, but his keen eye in front of goal that was so prevalent in his native homeland never quite came to fruition in England.

Bartosz Slusarski's transfer was one to forget for West Brom

After arriving in the West Midlands from Polish club, Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski in August 2007, Slusarski's hefty price tag of £680k for a player that was almost unknown to English fans, meant that Baggies fans didn't know what to expect.

Having a proven goalscoring record in Poland and Portugal certainly helped the striker's case, as well as comments by his new boss at the time, Tony Mowbray, who held high expectations upon the striker's arrival.

Mowbray told the BBC at the time: "He's strong, brave, can hold the ball up and gets into the box... He'll add to the fierce competition we've got up front and offers different qualities to the strikers we already have on board."

With a strike force of Kevin Phillips and Ishmael Miller in West Brom's 2007/08 campaign, it would prove to be hard to displace either one of the two for then-26-year-old Ślusarski.

Ślusarski went on to merely make one appearance for the club from 2007 to 2009, which came in their 3-2 loss away to Colchester in October 2007.

The forward was substituted onto the field by Mowbray for the final six minutes of the game, and was never to be seen in navy blue and white again.

Bartosz Slusarski's career in England never got going - Poland treated him much better

After not figuring into Mowbray's plans early on in his West Brom career, Slusarski made the move up north to Sheffield Wednesday, where he joined the Owls on a loan deal.

Slusarski's time there followed in a very similar fashion as lack of game-time seemed to be a common occurrence throughout his time in England.

With substitute appearances being the Pole's key source of minutes, he played 14 times for the Owls where he scored two goals and provided two assists.

As for his time with Blackpool, with only the one goal to his name with the Tangerines, his Championship career ultimately went down as a failure, especially for West Brom, who lost out on a healthy sum of money by taking the risk on his transfer.

Ślusarski would, however, find some more form back in his native Poland a few years later.

West Brom sold the striker to Cracovia in January 2009, but it was a move back to Lech Poznan in 2010 which saw him back to his best, scoring 11 times in 23 Ekstraklasa appearances in the 2012-13 season - it appeared that Ślusarski was peaking in his 30's.

His nightmare at The Hawthorns was a distant memory by that point - and West Brom fans had probably forgotten all about him at that moment too.