West Brom have been pretty active in the transfer market in the past, having splashed out significant sums of money on players like Karlan Grant, Jay Rodriguez and Nacer Chadli among others.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but one figure the club will now be wishing they had made a move to sign is Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk.
According to an article from the Express & Star, the Dutchman “came on the Baggies’ radar – along with a host of other clubs – while he was at Celtic.”
The article also adds that the former Hoops man “was extensively scouted and recommended to Tony Pulis,” but the club didn’t make a move to bring him to the Hawthorns before he eventually moved to Southampton in 2015.Former Baggies midfielder Darren Fletcher also revealed that he had recommended the Midlands club to sign Van Dijk, but they weren’t too keen to pay the money that was being touted for the defender at the time.During his time with the Saints, the centre-back scored seven goals in 80 appearances across all competitions following a £13m move. That was before making his mega-money journey to Liverpool in the 2018 January transfer window for a fee of £75m.Since becoming a Reds player, the 30-year-old has been a revelation for Jurgen Klopp’s side, making 168 appearances in which he’s found the back of the net 16 times as well as winning the Premier League and Champions League.To further highlight the defender’s rise to football’s upper echelons, he won the 2018/19 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award, beating the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. With that in mind, it’s hardly a surprise that Roy Keane dubbed him a “beast of a man” back in 2020.Labelled as a player that has “got everything” in his game by Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, the £49.5m-rated defender has once again shown what a formidable defensive unit he is for the Merseyside club by making more clearances (119) than any other player in Liverpool’s squad as well as winning an impressive 88.9% of the tackles he’s made.According to Salary Sport, the 6 foot 4 defensive titan is currently picking up a weekly wage of £240k-per-week, making him the highest earner at Liverpool, which is understandable given what he’s done for the team since his arrival.From a West Brom point of view, it’s hard to see this being anything other than a howler from Pulis by not making the most of the recommendations that were sent his way about Van Dijk, leaving the Midlands club to have nothing but nightmares about what could have been.In other news: WBA heading for disaster over “powerful” 30-goal “diamond”, supporters will be fuming