West Brom could have signed three of Euro 2020’s stars last season, including 26-goal striker

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Poor old West Brom.

While the rest of us were basking in the glow of two games that felt more like Shaolin Soccer reboots than knock-out fixtures in an international tournament, spare a thought for those Baggies supporters, wondering what might have been and wishing they could turn back the clock.

Slaven Bilic admitted, during his final few months in the Hawthorns’ hotseat, that he had tried to bring both Nikola Vlasic and Mislav Orsic to West Brom, some 12 months before they ripped Spain’s defence to ribbons during the highest-scoring European Championship fixture since Yugoslavia edged France 5-4 in 1960. 

Once the final whistle rang out at a bouncing Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, bringing an end to an eight-goal thriller that no one will forget in a hurry, it was Haris Seferovic’s time to shine. 

According to the Express and Star, West Bromwich Albion wanted to sign the Switzerland international during the January transfer window, when they were still a Premier League club hoping to replicate the ‘Great Escape’ of ‘05.

Benfica were ready to sell, too. But West Brom only had the funds for loan deals rather than permanent transfers and had little choice but to settle for Mbaye Diagne.  

Would Haris Seferovic have saved West Brom?

Diagne was no disaster – he scored in fine performances against Manchester United and Chelsea before playing a major role in a 3-0 trouncing of Southampton – but it is tempting to wonder where West Brom would be right now if Seferovic had signed on the dotted line five months ago. 

After scoring 26 times in a struggling Benfica side last season, the journeyman striker scribed his name into European Championships folklore on a scarcely-believable Monday night in Bucharest.

Beating Hugo Lloris with two brilliant headers, Seferovic was the driving force behind in a win that absolutely nobody saw coming, tearing up the script as Switzerland stunned reigning world champions France.  

Would an Orsic-Vlasic-Seferovic frontline have kept West Brom in the Premier League? After giving Luis Enrique and Didier Deschamps nightmares, it is hard to imagine they wouldn’t have made a decent fist of it.