Emmanuel Dennis’s star fell as rapidly as it rose.
As the spring became the summer, an exciting young forward who shot to fame with two Champions League goals against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu was being linked with a big-money move to what felt like every club in England’s top flight.
According to Walfoot, Dennis was a £23 million target for an Arsenal side who, at the time, were scouring the market for a striker capable of filling a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang-shaped hole at the Emirates.
The report added that the Club Brugge talisman also had admirers at Everton, Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Brighton, Leicester City, Watford, Everton and Sheffield United.
In the end, it was West Brom who came closer than anyone to securing the services of the much-coveted Nigeria international.
“The wages (on offer at The Hawthorns) were crazy,” Dennis told Het Nieuwsblad, explaining why that purported move from Belgium to the Baggies failed to materialise.
“The problem was that it was a loan and with an (option to buy) clause in the contract.”
Brugge, Dennis suggested, wanted to sell him outright.
“West Brom was a good deal. If they stayed in the Premier League, they would have bought me (permanently). Then I would have been playing in the Premier League for at least two years.”
With just a fortnight to go before the January transfer window swings open, Dennis is back on the market. Walfoot claims that Club Brugge are now willing to sell for just £7 million; a damn sight less than the £23 million they were demanding a few months back.
Whether his availability will spark a Premier League feeding frenzy remains to be seen. There is a reason why his price-tag has shrunk so dramatically, after all.
Dennis has scored just once in 13 matches this season (and none in 9 Jupiler League matches) with a number of off-field problems also taking a sledgehammer to his once-glittering reputation.
Then again, some of Dennis’s admirers are crying out for attacking additions and it would not be a major surprise if relegation-threatened West Brom, Brighton, Sheffield United – or even Arsenal, for that matter – were willing to overlook his sluggish start to the current campaign.
According to Walfoot, Chris Wilder’s blunted Blades have already made their interest in a winter deal known.
2020/21 might have been a personal disaster for Dennis but, only a year ago, he was running Real Madrid ragged on their hallowed Bernabau turf at the very top of the European game.
That sort of ability does not just disappear overnight.
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