“Uproar in this day and age" - West Brom praised for Ipswich Town free transfer | OneFootball

FLW's West Brom fan pundit has picked the club's best bargain signing

Highlights

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

West Bromwich Albion have made a number of signings this summer that fans will be hoping will prove real bargains.

The arrival of Torbjorn Heggem is the only deal that saw the Baggies pay a transfer fee so far this summer.

Gianluca Frabotta, Devante Cole, Ousmane Diakité and Joe Wildsmith have all signed for Albion on free transfers.

Meanwhile, Paddy McNair and Lewis Dobbin have joined on loan for the season ahead.

Carlos Corberan will be aiming for his side to compete for promotion to the Premier League again this year, and these additions could all help achieve that goal.

West Brom’s best bargain signing

FLW’s West Brom fan pundit Matt Smith believes that the best bargain signing the club have made in his time supporting them was Gareth McAuley.

He has claimed that McAuley’s arrival would lead to uproar if it happened now, but that the defender proved an excellent addition at the Hawthorns, signing him on a free transfer from Ipswich Town at the end of his deal.

“Probably the biggest bargain signing Albion have made since I’ve been supporting them, I think it doesn’t get much more of a bargain than Gareth McAuley,” Smith told Football League World.

“Obviously [it was] on a free, which is why he was a bargain, but the thing that I like most about the transfer was that he was coming from Ipswich, who finished bottom half of the Championship.

“We had been finishing in the top half of the Premier League, looking to stabilise ourselves, and we’re signing a 30-odd-year-old defender from Ipswich.

“Imagine the uproar in this day and age because on paper it’s such an uninspiring signing.

“But obviously he played for us for six, seven years as a regular for the whole of that period.

“He was just awesome in defence and attack, so on a free of Ipswich at 31, or whatever he was, I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams would’ve seen how good he would turn out to be.

“Which is incredible, the whole profile.

“You’d probably never see a signing like it in this day and age, because he was absolutely amazing.

“I would’ve loved to have seen the reaction, even somebody like me would’ve been fuming if we signed someone like that now, it was unreal.”

Gareth McAuley’s importance to West Brom

McAuley had played 39 times for Ipswich in the 2010-11 campaign as the Tractor Boys finished 13th in the Championship table (all stats from Fbref).

But he immediately cemented himself as a Premier League regular when he made the switch to West Brom that summer.

In seven top-flight seasons, he made 203 appearances and even scored 15 goals from centre-back.

The Northern Irishman helped the club achieve an eighth and two 10th-place finishes during his time at the Hawthorns, before moving to Rangers in 2018.

Gareth McAuley was a real bargain signing for West Brom

McAuley was a great signing for West Brom and was a cornerstone of them staying in the Premier League for so long.

He was particularly suited to Tony Pulis’ style of play after he came in as manager in 2015, which helped get the Baggies back up to a 10th-place finish in 2017.

Given he was signed as a free agent, his signing was a real coup and a sign of how strong their recruitment was at this time.

Corberan will be hoping that one of this summer’s free-agent signing will be able to have a similar impact on his West Brom side.