West Brom wasted £10.6m on Hawthorns flop who earned more than Maja.
West Bromwich Albion fans must be getting a little fed up with their team stumbling when it comes to promotion back to the big time of the Premier League, with the Baggies routinely slipping up in the lottery of the Championship playoffs.
Under Carlos Corberan, his unfortunate side lost out to eventual promotion winners Southampton last season in the playoff mix, whilst the 2018/19 season saw caretaker boss James Shan lead his team to a fourth-place finish only for them to come unstuck when push came to shove.
Josh-Maja-West-Brom-1
Corberan will know that Josh Maja’s goals could fire his side to promotion if he can keep up his electric form, with the ex-Sunderland striker at the very top of his game now donning West Brom colours.
Maja’s form this season
Maja is already onto eight goals in the second tier for his promotion-chasing side, with the on-fire Baggies talisman only beaten in the top scorer charts by Norwich City star Borja Sainz, who boasts an outstanding 11 strikes.
Championship top scorers
Player
Goal tally
Borja Sainz
11
Josh Maja
8
Tom Cannon
6
Haji Wright
6
Joel Piroe
5
Stats via BBC Sport.
It’s not been constant sunshine for Maja, however, who did go five clashes on the spin without a goal recently, before instinctively firing home against Luton Town to start his November off on better footing.
West Brom’s patience with the 25-year-old attacker has more than paid off after he endured a nightmare first campaign with the club, which saw him start just one league game owing to bad luck in the injury department.
Now, he is the potent striker West Brom have been crying out for with Brandon Thomas-Asante’s absence hurting them in the summer, and he cost nothing to obtain too after joining on a free transfer.
Whilst Albion will be grateful that Maja has come good, not every notable striker signing they’ve made in recent years has gone down swimmingly, with Victor Anichebe viewed as an expensive disaster.
Josh-Maja-Sunderland
Anichebe’s costs at West Brom
Eyebrows would have been raised from the get-go when Anichebe left Everton for the Hawthorns in 2013 on a bumper deal, considering the Nigerian wasn’t exactly the most threatening goal machine for the Toffees.
He would only register a weak 26 strikes from 168 games playing for the Merseysiders, a low amount that didn’t justify West Brom forking out £6m to win his services whatsoever.
Victor-Anichebe-West-Brom
Still, the Baggies would push on to pick up the unconvincing striker for this lavish amount, perhaps hopeful that they could get more out of the 6 foot 3 attacker than Everton had managed.
Yet, Anichebe’s goal-shy performances at Goodison would unfortunately follow him to his new location, with the move going down as a huge waste of money.
Anichebe’s numbers at West Brom
Season
Games
Goals
15/16
14
0
14/15
25
6
13/14
24
3
Sourced by Transfermarkt.
The Lagos-born striker’s best output for a campaign across his torrid three-season stay at the Hawthorns was an uninspiring six, with a pitiful zero goals managed during his final season, in which he would average just 0.4 on-target shots per clash.
These numbers certainly make his £6m price tag seem rather extortionate, but Anichebe further dented the Baggies bank account with his wage costs too, which would come in at a hefty £4.6m lost by the club across his cursed stay.
His £32k-per-week wage during this barren final season also saw him rake in nearly double Maja’s salary, with the 25-year-old earning just £17k-per-week right now in Corberan’s camp.
