West Brom supporting mate reckons we may be looking at Dike if Healey sale goes through. No idea on the quality of info but he did say the bloke who posted it is usually quite a reliable source.
Would make sense considering his history with Ismael, but his injury record makes Healey look like he's built from stone
West Brom paid £7m for him from Barnsley but my mate reckons if we offer any money we will get him as they are totally skint. He's only 23 too. But injuries are a concern.
If they view him as an important asset surely they would hold onto him until their takeover goes through?
He’s very injury prone yes but one of the best strikers in the league when not. Not sure what to make of that.
He's clearly a very good player at this level when fit, but not sure his profile matches what we've supposedly been looking for? He's very much a CF as opposed to a wide player. Presuming we're holding on to Bayo and Rajovic, do we really need to add Dike on top of that? I won't complain if we could afford to have those three strikers and also add another wide player, but assuming money is tight I'd have thought we'd have other priorities.
Val loves Dike but he’s been out for 9 months + with a major achilles injury and is due back around now however his surgeon reports that he will have to be reintegrated with a cautious approach. Mega risky if you ask me.
How long is his contract at WBA ? Maybe some form of performance based extendable contract so small risk possible big upside - like the one we absolutely should have done with Rose !! Makes no sense if he's on a good long contract at WBA...
This is the bloke that looks like a giant toddler whenever he plays, right? A big lump but terrible at football? And that's when he's actually fit enough to play...
Yes mate he’s contracted to WBA until 30/06/26. He’d be an idiot to walk away from that contract. The only way a deal in my opinion could be constructed would be if WBA took a large element of the risk or paid him up. Which I can’t see happening. They paid €10m for him in Jan 22. Indeed he was Val’s first signing for them.
If fit, I would absolutely love Dike, but if we're gonna have to wait for ages to actually see him play, not to mention with no guarantee that he'd actually return to his best form. I'm sure we are after another player who can play central striker, Healey wasn't exactly an integral part of the team, but he was somewhat involved and did make his starts in our most recent games, although an Okereke or Deffrel type who can also play wide would make sense too
Has looked like a big useless donkey every single times I've seen him play. Now he's a big useless donkey who's been out for a year with a serious injury. Proper Watford signing.
Decent player when he's been fit, and has had his best season under Val getting decent returns and still young at 23 so hopefully still room for development. That being said, his injury record is very patchy only 29 games for West Brom over the last 2 and a half seasons. If we get him fit and in form he can be a sharp shooter that's for sure but knowing Watford he'll be here for 2 seasons and play about 5 games after getting injured on debut.
As many have said, when fit he's really strong at this level, with upside. Touching wood, it seems that whatever training methods Isamael and the staff are using, we seem to be having fewer muscle injuries than in recent seasons, and most of Dike's issues have been of that nature. The club would have to take a really close look, but there's some hope that if he trains and is managed properly, we could stay ahead of that. He would need to play 90 minutes every match for starters.
And American. And from living here for 18 months, most of them are proper annoying. So I imagine him always complaining how injured he is would be a nightmare.
Like the idea of him playing for us if he was the player he can theoretically be. As it and he is, though, there's no way we should be taking that kind of risk 0n a player who has never been able to stay fit in their career to date. Anything other than a free transfer would be pant-seat profligacy of the Gino-est order, and that's obviously not going to happen. (The free transfer, not the patented profligacy)
A half fit Dike will likely be twice the player of the worst striker we’ve ever had Rajovic and much better than his understudy Vakoun ‘Grayo’ Bayo. I will reserve the right to irrationally hate him if he goes on to do punditry or has a famous wife.
I can't see him leaving West Brom to come to us on much less money unless he's one of those rare players you find that put playing before money. The fact he's not currently fit and has been injured for a long time suggests we should stay clear.
