This article forms part of our Profit Players feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern takes a look at how well a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to prove how good of a deal the club managed to achieve.
In 2013/14, Charlie Austin’s prolific form in front of goal helped to fire a team playing in blue and white into the Premier League. Five years on from those heroics with QPR, for whom he also scored 18 top-flight goals despite their relegation a year later, West Brom put their faith in a second lightning strike by signing him from Southampton for £4m last August.
Austin came to The Hawthorns with a tremendous scoring record at Championship level but, having turned 30 last summer and endured a lean campaign with the Saints, it would have been understandable if some Baggies fans had reservations about his arrival.
Any such opposition to Albion’s decision to buy him may well have grown after the first three months of the season, with only one goal in his first 11 league appearances for Slaven Bilic’s side. He duly lost his place in the starting XI following the November international break but, far from shattering his confidence, it ended up getting the best out of him.
Austin duly went and scored in five successive league games despite starting only one of them, hitting six goals in the space of just two hours on the pitch (as per WhoScored). Most of those were crucial goals, too, with late winners against Sheffield Wednesday and Preston, along with a two-goal salvo to ensure victory from a losing position away to Birmingham. The 30-year-old was swiftly proving to be the epitome of a supersub.
The £4m man hasn’t been able to maintain such excellent form, with only one goal since Christmas as he continued to settle primarily for substitute appearances rather than a place in Bilic’s first XI (as per TransferMarkt). However, it is evident from his tremendous form in late 2019 that he is quite capable of embarking on rich scoring bursts.
Despite only starting 13 of Albion’s 35 Championship matches so far this season, Austin is their second-highest scorer with nine goals in all competitions, only one behind Hal Robson-Kanu. His goals have been worth eight league points to the Baggies, without which they would not be in an automatic promotion place, and his eight league goals have come in 1,123 minutes of game-time, one per 140.37 minutes. Contrast that with Kenneth Zohore, who cost twice as much last summer but has just three league goals in 602 minutes, one per 200.67 minutes.
Should the Championship season resume and West Brom maintain their place in the top two, they may well look back on their £4m investment in Austin and regard it as an astute purchase towards a proven scorer with previous in firing teams to promotion.
West Brom fans, how good a decision was it to sign Austin for £4m last August? Comment below with your views!