West Brom will never get over disastrous £8m Cardiff City agreement - It was destined to fail | OneFootball

Kenneth Zohore turned out to be one of West Brom’s worst signings in their history, particularly for the sizeable transfer fee involved.

Eyebrows were raised back in the summer of 2019 when Kenneth Zohore swapped Cardiff City for West Brom.

The Danish forward had made the switch from South Wales to the West Midlands under Slaven Bilic, with the Baggies reportedly paying a fee of up to £8 million for his services.

It seemed a very steep price at the time for a Championship club to be paying, particularly after Albion had failed to secure an immediate return to the Premier League and had less money from the top-flight parachute payments.

However, West Brom believed that Zohore was the right man to lead the line to replace the departures of Jay Rodriguez and Salomon Rondon, with his strength, speed and power supposedly making him a fantastic option up front, but what would follow on from that was an absolutely disastrous stint at The Hawthorns.

Kenneth Zohore’s struggles in a West Brom shirt

Kenneth Zohore’s stay at West Brom was a tormenting watch for all connected to the club, with the frontman coming nowhere near to repaying the hefty price tag spent on bringing him to B71.

Injuries ravaged his opening season, with a calf problem limiting him to just 17 appearances in the Championship, with three goals an underwhelming return – particularly as two of the strikes were from the penalty spot against Derby County and Reading.

The Baggies did secure promotion to the Premier League that season but Zohore failed to contribute anything meaningful, earning just 653 minutes of action. His poor performances saw him earn a loan move back to the second tier with Millwall.

He returned to the club the following term, but only made two appearances for the Baggies, before another frustrating loan spell with Danish Superliga side Odense forced West Brom’s hand into terminating his contract in January 2023, to the delight of Albion supporters.

In his four years in the blue and white stripes, Zohore only played 23 matches in all competitions. His five goals in total were an abysmal return for a striker who cost £8 million, he wasn’t favoured under any regime amid both injury issues and a seeming failure to convince in training.

Kenneth Zohore signing is one of the worst in West Brom’s history

Given Kenneth Zohore is West Brom’s 11th biggest ever signing financially, it has to go down as the worst ever in the club’s history for the lack of appearances, goals and relationship with the supporters.

The now-31-year-old never had the stomach for the fight to break into the first team setup at The Hawthorns, and appeared to carry over the antics from his final years at Cardiff, where Zohore had fallen down the pecking order for the Bluebirds under Neil Warnock for his reported lack of work ethic and hunger for the game.

Zohore had clear talent - the 2016/17 and 2017/18 Championship campaigns with Cardiff showed as much - but City supporters were bewildered when the Baggies shelled out such a sum at a point where the striker's stock had already fallen after playing a peripheral role in the top-flight.

The Baggies should have stayed well clear of a player who was on the decline in his career, and it remains bizarre to this day why the club felt they wanted to pay £8 million for a player who was heading backwards.

Albion should count themselves lucky they secured promotion the season they signed Zohore, as the repercussions could have been so much worse financially with Premier League money fading fast.

It’s certainly an example that owner Shilen Patel will look at and never want the club to negotiate again under his watch, while Albion supporters will continue to feel bewildered for years to come over how the club blew so much financial resources on an abject failure.