Karlan Grant celebrates after scoring a goal (Getty Images)
According to Sky Sports, West Brom have completed the signing of Karlan Grant for a fee of around £15million from Huddersfield Town. The Baggies had been linked with the highly sought-after striker throughout the summer and finally managed to have the last laugh in what proved to be a lengthy transfer saga.
The 23-year-old has become West Brom’s ninth signing of the summer following their promotion to the Premier League, putting pen to paper on a six-year deal at The Hawthorns.
Karlan Grant rose through the youth ranks of Charlton Athletic and made his first-team breakthrough for the Addicks during the 2014-15 season in the Championship. The Greenwich-born striker spent time on loan at Cambridge United and Crawley Town in League Two before establishing himself as a first-team regular at Charlton in League One.
An impressive tally of 14 goals in 29 appearances during the first half of the 2018-19 campaign paved the way for a switch to the Premier League with Huddersfield Town in January 2019. Grant enjoyed a good start to life in the top-flight, scoring 4 goals in 13 appearances but that wasn’t enough to save the Terriers from relegation.
Grant went on to plunder 19 goals and 4 assists in 43 appearances in the Championship last season, establishing himself as one of the most lethal strikers in the second-tier.
West Brom have endured a torrid start to life back in the top-flight, losing three of their opening four league fixtures so far. The Baggies have lacked quality at both ends of the pitch and it has been quite evident from their lacklustre performances that Slaven Bilic’s side have plenty of work to do if they are to beat the drop in the Premier League.
Goals have been hard to come by for West Brom in the Premier League, with the Baggies failing to find the net in two out of their four games so far. They scored thrice in the 3-3 draw against Chelsea but it was more a result of some generous defending from the Blues.
Callum Robinson has been backed to lead the line ahead of more established strikers like Hal Robson-Kanu and Charlie Austin but the former Sheffield United man has struggled to shoulder the responsibility of playing as the club’s first-choice No.9 in the top-flight. That’s not a big surprise given Robinson has never really been an out-and-out centre-forward by trade.
The likes of Austin and Zohore have been completely frozen out of the first-team mix by Bilic, who doesn’t seem to have either striker in his plans moving forward. Hence, it is a no-brainer that the acquisition of Karlan Grant before the domestic deadline comes as a massive boost to fix West Brom’s ailing forward line.
The 23-year-old proved himself to be a cut above the rest in the Championship while he also looked fairly comfortable and netted some crucial goals for Huddersfield in the Premier League towards the back end of the 2018-19 campaign.
The door remains very much open for Karlan Grant to walk into West Brom’s starting XI as the first-choice No.9, considering the club’s lack of a genuine goal threat up top. It won’t be an overstatement that the Baggies’ survival hopes in the Premier League will be directly impacted by whether or not the 23-year-old manages to make a significant contribution in the coming months.
Suffice to say, West Brom have finally played their trump card in the market and it remains to be seen how he copes with the pressure of being the focal point of the Baggies’ attack in the top-flight.