West Brom signed a game-changer for just £2.5m and never looked back | OneFootball

The signing of Peter Odemwingie was a key part of Albion’s most recent long-term success in the Premier League.

Throughout the last 20 years, West Bromwich Albion have been a club competing at the top end of the Championship or battling for survival in the Premier League.

The Baggies had an impressive eight-year straight stay in the top flight between 2010-2018, comfortably surviving under the tenures of Steve Clarke, Roy Hodgson and Tony Pulis.

Much of Albion’s success in competing against England’s most prestigious sides was down to the recruitment team, with the Black Country outfit bagging some memorable talent that Baggies fans will remember for the rest of their lives.

One signing who will be etched long in the memory is former Nigerian international Peter Odemwingie, who linked up at The Hawthorns back in 2010 from Russian outfit Lokomotiv Moscow.

The forward would go on to be a fan favourite among the Albion faithful, with his regular goalscoring ability in the Premier League a contributing factor to the club’s long stint of top flight action.

Football League World takes a look back at his Baggies career and how he became a Premier League bargain buy.

Peter Odemwingie’s West Brom career was a memorable one

Scoring 21 goals from 75 games, Odemwingie would elect to leave Spartak Moscow and head to the Premier League with West Brom on a two-year-contract, for a reported fee of £2.5 million.

The star-studded striker would go on to repay the investment and undergo the best goalscoring return of his career at The Hawthorns.

The Uzbekistan-born forward immediately showed his prowess in front of goal, netting on his debut in an opening day victory over Sunderland in the 2010/11 season.

This would be a sign of things to come in an Albion shirt, as the marksman recorded 15 goals and nine assists from 32 top flight outings, helping land West Brom to an 11th placed finish.

In his second campaign, Odemwingie would be slightly less prolific but would go on to reach double figures yet again. Three of the ten goals in that term would come at Molineux, with an iconic hat-trick inflicting a 5-1 defeat on bitter Black Country rivals Wolves, sending Albion fans into delirium.

However, in his third season, Odemwingie had become restless at West Brom, with the club rejecting a transfer request from the striker, leading to the forward criticising the club on social media.

He then infamously turned up at QPR’s training ground on Deadline Day, a moment that has been well documented and mentioned most often during transfer windows. The Nigerian was refused entry by the R's as no official deal could be agreed between the two clubs.

The situation led to Odemwingie staying in the West Midlands that season, but most of his 25 appearances were from the substitutes bench, prompting him to grow even more frustrated and develop a fragmented relationship between himself and the supporters.

In a sour ending for both Odemwingie and the Baggies, the forward eventually departed in the 2013/14 season to Cardiff City, bringing the curtain down on a sensational goalscoring spell.

In all competitions, Albion’s number 24 would net 31 times and register 16 assists from 90 first team appearances.

Peter Odemwingie turned out to be a bargain buy for the Baggies overall

For such a low fee spent, West Brom certainly wouldn’t have expected Odemwingie to have such a significant impact at the club as he ended up having.

Recruiting a lethal finisher who possessed the skillset to reach double figures for goals in consecutive Premier League seasons is a very tough ask, but the Albion recruitment team worked wonders to help the club have enough goals at the top end of the pitch to secure regular top flight football for seasons to come.

While Odemwingie’s head shifted elsewhere during his third season to the frustration of the supporters, the hostility towards him is no longer present, with the striker giving the Albion faithful fond moments to look back on rather than the disappointing end to his spell.

The £2.5 million buy of Odemwingie has to go down as one of West Brom’s best-ever buys, helping the club to thrive financially and cement themselves as Premier League regulars at the time.