Both Southampton and West Brom want to go to the Premier League at the end of the season, and that is their shared objective.
While the Baggies’ only realistic path to promotion is through the play-offs, the Saints still have a chance to earn an automatic promotion position despite a decline in performance during February that followed an unbeaten run that spanned 22 Championship games.
But considering the caliber of Leeds United, Ipswich Town, and Leicester City, maybe the most likely scenario for the Saints in May is that they’ll be playing in the playoffs with teams like the Baggies.
Unfortunately for both Russell Martin’s Saints and Carlos Corberan’s Baggies, promotion hopes are not the only thing they have in common, as they share the same issue.
Both clubs have big money signings on their books, who have not been able to feature for their clubs as much as either they or their respective employers would have liked.
The player in question in the Saints’ situation is, of course, former Sunderland standout Ross Stewart, who was acquired by the Hampshire team for a figure of £8 million last summer.
But Stewart has struggled with injuries ever since joining St Mary’s, and he has only managed to play in two games for Martin’s team.
Daryl Dike, an American international who the Baggies signed in January 2022 for a rumored cost in excess of £7 million, presents a very similar problem.
After joining the Hawthorns halfway through the season, Dike only made two appearances in the 2021/22 campaign and has never been able to have a prolonged stretch of fitness.
The forward will be out until the end of 2024, according to The Guardian, after rupturing his left achilles tendon in a match against Ipswich Town just five games after making a long-term comeback from a ruptured right achilles tendon.
Southampton and WBA must hope for the best
Sadly for both Martin and Corberan, all they can do is hope that their respective strikers can endure a longer injury-free period the next time they are back to match-fitness.
Due to the injury patterns of both Stewart and Dike, neither club have the option to offload these players, as other clubs are unlikely to be willing to sign a player with an unreliable injury record.
From a business point of view, the Saints will hope that eventually Stewart will come good, reach fitness and start scoring goals for his club as they are, realistically, unable to make a profit from any sale.
The Baggies are in exactly the same situation with Dike, as both clubs have paid handsome fees for a striker who they had hoped to be a real star in the first team, but who has turned out to be injured more often than not.
West Brom worse off than Southampton
Although both clubs are in an undesirable scenario, perhaps the Baggies’ situation is somewhat worse than that of the Saints, because at least Martin has Adam Armstrong at his disposal, who is arguably the best striker in the Championship.
The Baggies, meanwhile, do not have anyone among their ranks who is nearly as prolific as Armstrong, so Dike’s absence is perhaps more of an issue for Albion than Stewart’s time on the sidelines is for the Saints.
However, since his arrival on loan from Celtic in January, Mikey Johnston has already become one of the Baggies’ top scorers, and his goal-getting exploits could help fire Corberan’s men to promotion.
But no matter what happens this season, both clubs may now regret making their big money signings due to their injury-plagued time in the Championship.
The sad reality for the Saints and the Baggies is that neither Stewart nor Dike appear likely, at this moment in time, to prove that their high transfer fee was worth it.
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