Dwight Gayle considering staying at West Brom long term
Baggies top scorer Dwight Gayle has admitted staying at The Hawthorns beyond this season has already ‘crossed his mind’.
The 29-year-old, who is on a season-long loan from Newcastle United, is enjoying his football in the Black Country having settled into the Albion squad quickly.
There is no option to buy Gayle included in the loan swap with Newcastle that sent Salomon Rondon the other way, meaning any permanent transfer would have to be negotiated.
And Gayle has confirmed it’s a possible future he’s already thought about.
“Yeah of course it’s crossed my mind,” said Gayle. “It’s something that will be on the cards but I suppose I’ve just got to get this season out of the way and let others get on with what they’ve got to do and we’ll see how things go.
“I’m very happy playing my football here and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Anything could happen at the end of the season, we’ve just got to wait and see.”
Gayle already has nine goals for the Baggies this season in a team with the best scoring record in the top four divisions.
Although he’s on course to beat his tally of 23 which fired Newcastle up as champions two seasons ago, his only thoughts are on promotion.
“Of course I’d like to beat it but ultimately the most important thing for me is to get promotion,” he said.
“I know it might sound cheesy or whatnot but the end goal is to get promoted and the team to be successful.
“We could be sitting here at the end of the season and if I’ve scored 30 goals and the team has come seventh then I won’t be happy. If we get knocked out in the play-offs it won’t be a successful season.
“I’d much rather sit there with 17 or 18 goals or whatever it is, and we’ve won the league, come in the top two, or won the play-offs.”
And the striker, who has been in a promotion-winning squad before, believes the Baggies have what it takes to go up this season.
“We haven’t had the best last few weeks,” he admitted. “We had to go back to the drawing board and assess what we needed to do.
“But we’ve definitely got the quality of players, the belief, and the togetherness is there. We just needed to perhaps go back to square one and go from there.”
