Dwight Gayle has barely had a kick in the Premier League for Newcastle United this season but he could fire the Baggies out of the Championship.
West Bromwich Albion are hoping to take the striker back to the Hawthorns in January, according to The Sun.
After a sluggish start, The Baggies now look like favourites for the Championship title, sitting top of the second-tier table with seven wins from 13 games since Slaven Bilic took over.
Goals have hardly been in short supply for West Brom either with no team in the division scoring more than their 24. But, between them, strikers Kenneth Zohore, Charlie Austin and Hal Robson-Kanu have netted just four times with a lack of a prolific number nine perhaps the one glaring weakness in Bilic’s squad.
Last season, Gayle scored 24 Championship goals during a loan spell at West Brom, firing the Baggies into the play-offs. He found the net 23 times as Newcastle won the second-tier title in 2017 too. In total, the 29-year-old has averaged 20 goals a season in his three campaigns in arguably Europe’s most competitive division.
It remains to be seen whether West Brom want Gayle on loan again or whether they would be keen to strike a permanent deal with The Sun previously claiming that he’d cost around £15 million.
That is a lot of money of course, but a return to the promised land is priceless.
But the striker appears to be back in the first team squad at Newcastle, coming on for the final 5 minutes at Chelsea on Saturday.
With United firing blanks all season, perhaps Gayle could be ready for a spell on the pitch.