West Brom 2016-17 season review: Results, roster changes, and summer transfer targets

Like quite a few of the Premier League’s mid-table sides, West Brom’s season ended in a bit of an odd place. Definitely good enough ... probably not actually good. If we assume that survival is the first priority, then it was job done by March. But at times, they threatened to turn into a team capable of a little bit more. At other times, they were straight-up rubbish.

For about five months of the 2016-17 Premier League season, West Brom were a genuinely decent side. Between a 2-1 victory over Leicester City at the beginning of November and a 3-1 win over Arsenal at the end of March, they picked up 30 points from a possible 57 — which isn’t going to win a title, but would, if stretched out over the whole season, have seen West Brom jostling with Everton for seventh place and a Europa League spot.

They were pretty prolific, too. Tony Pulis is a man who doesn’t believe there’s such a thing as too many central defenders, but at times West Brom (November-March edition) bordered on the fun. Sure, they were kept quiet by a few of the league’s more powerful sides (and, er, Crystal Palace), but they scored against everybody else. And the win over Arsenal wasn’t just an extremely important result in the eventual race for Champions League football. It was also very, very funny.

In short, it was exactly the kind of return you’d be looking for from a well-established mid-table side looking to kick on to the heady heights of … well, upper mid-table. Which is about as far as the Premier League’s big boys will be letting anybody get for a while, now. That whole Leicester business was embarrassing.

Of course, as the old saying goes, a football season is a game of three thirds. The reason West Brom finished 10th rather than seventh or eighth, and with 45 points rather than 60-ish, is that they started slowly and ended appallingly.

Slow starts can happen. But in the last nine games of the season, once safety was secured, Tony Pulis’ entertainers managed two draws and seven losses. The idea of footballers knocking off once they’ve reached 40 points is always a controversial one, and West Brom’s players have denied any such loss of focus. But the Baggies couldn’t have looked more on the beach if they’d been buried up to their necks in sand. They also couldn’t have been much worse.

They made a complete mess of the cups, too. In a league that is, for the most part, a closed shop when it comes to trophies, the cup competitions are the most likely path to some kind of tangible glory. Yet West Brom managed just one game in each, going out of the League Cup on penalties to League One Northampton Town, then exiting the FA Cup at the hands of the Championship’s Derby County.

Can one ever truly be optimistic about a Tony Pulis team? His are not sides for sunnier futures; rather, they are teams for the grim and gray now. That’s the trade-off: Pulis brings security, stability, and the guarantee of at least one amusing win over a big team per season. Probably Arsenal. In return, all he asks is the sacrifice of your first-born dreams.

All that said, if West Brom can find a bit of consistency and expand the good chunk of their season to encompass both beginning and end, then there’s no reason next season shouldn’t be an improvement on this one. The defence and central midfield are solid, and Matty Phillips has had an excellent first season. There’s also highly rated 18-year-old striker Jonathan Leko on the fringes of the first team. Perhaps one or two dreams might escape with their lives.

West Brom’s most obvious and pressing need is for a reliable goal scorer. Salomon Rondon is a hard-working and diligent line-leader who looks a right pain to play against. But he only managed eight goals this season. His backup, Hal Robson-Kanu, picked up just the two.

Thanks to the player’s agent, we know that West Brom are one of the clubs interested in Manchester City’s sometime-wonderkid Kelechi Iheanacho, who is generally promising but has been supplanted by Gabriel Jesus. However, it appears that there is plenty of competition for his signature, so any move might depend on how much West Brom are willing to pay and whether they can sell the delights of being a Baggie over Everton, West Ham, Hoffenheim, and possibly even Borussia Dortmund.

West Brom also has a bit of a hole at defensive midfield. Darren Fletcher played all 38 games for the Baggies this season, and he’s announced his move to Stoke City. Expect a proper Pulis man to join up to marshal the midfield.

At the back, there have been persistent rumours that Tony Pulis will offer John Terry the chance to extend his Premier League career after his departure from Chelsea. Again, though, it remains to be seen if West Brom can compete with the alternatives: the lure of retirement, or possibly Bournemouth. Given Terry’s shaky cameos for Chelsea this season, he might be more problem than solution. A more long-term option could be Middlesbrough’s Ben Gibson, who managed to come out of a relegation season with his reputation enhanced.