West Brom may have been suprised at what followed Tottenham, January deal | OneFootball

When West Brom signed Alex Pritchard from Tottenham in 2016, little did they know his move would be a disaster

When West Bromwich Albion signed Alex Pritchard on loan back in the winter transfer window of 2016, they thought they'd got one of the brightest young talents in the country, but the move never truly worked out.

Rewind almost nine years and West Brom were an established Premier League side, so to loan a player who'd excelled in the Championship while on loan at Brentford seemed like a good move at the time.

It also seemed a logical move for Spurs to let one of their brighter players prove he was capable of playing in the Premier League before bringing him back in to take a closer look over pre-season.

But to prove you're capable of playing in the Premier League, you need to actually play, and Pritchard never truly got that chance at West Brom, making just two appearances for a total of 62 minutes during his loan spell.

That would suggest he was out of favour at The Hawthorns and would perhaps even hint at an underlying issue, but that game time only tells half the story of what was simply a disastorus move.

Tony Pulis was forced to manage Pritchard's fitness

Due to Prichard only being on loan, then West Brom manager Tony Pulis felt he had a "responsibility" not to risk the rehabilitation of Pritchard, who had just returned from a nasty ankle injury.

That's in part why he didn't play too many games in his loan spell, which is a shame for Pulis, who claimed Pritchard had huge talent.

"Alex has come in and has tremendous talent," Pulis said.

"He was injured at Tottenham for a long time so it's just making sure and I think Tottenham are concerned we don't push him too quickly too soon.

"The last thing they want is the kid to get injured again so it's just about being patient with Alex as much as anything else."

Patience is a word seldom used in football, because managers and players alike tend not to get much time these days, and you do wonder if Pritchard was good enough, then would Pulis have used him more often.

Pritchard didn't even make the matchday squad in the Baggies' last seven games of that season, and the most telling part of that is that West Brom won none of them, so even in the midst of a terrible run, Pritchard couldn't get a look in.

What happened next may have surprised West Broom

After a failed stint in the Premier League, it was somewhat surprising to see Norwich splash £8m on Pritchard to spearhead a promotion push.

It could be argued at that point that the Championship was more his level, but journeying down to East Anglia with the burden of a hefty price tag, there was pressure on Pritchard to perform.

He did just that in his first season, racking up 15 goal involvements in 30 Championship appearances as he showed glimpses of the form that made his name at Brentford.

Familiar issues hit the next season when he missed almost half a season owing to ankle surgery, but that didn't stop Huddersfield Town taking a £14m punt on him in the Premier League, seeing the Canaries turn a tidy profit on a player who West Brom turned their nose up at.

It would've been a great surprise to see Norwich turn such a profit on Pritchard, and West Brom would've looked on with envy at the time.

But ultimately their 2016 decision was probably justified, as Pritchard has since bounced around in the Championship, League One and now the Turkish Super League with Sivasspor.