West Brom had a fairly miserable 2020/21 season in the Premier League which saw them eventually suffer relegation straight back to the Championship after losing 22 of their 38 league games.

Despite their disappointing results, one player who could be seen as being a bright light for the Baggies during a difficult campaign was Conor Gallagher.

Having signed the midfielder on loan from Chelsea in the 2020 summer transfer window, the Englishman ended up making 30 league appearances for the Midlands club, chipping in with two goals and two assists in the process.

His assists at the time ended up being rather important - the first helped to secure a point against Manchester United, while the other sealed all three points against Brighton, both in February 2021. He also netted the winner against Sheffield United in November of that season.

At the end of his spell at The Hawthorns, the midfielder won the University of Wolverhampton Young Player of the Season award, highlighting how he managed to stand out in such a disheartening campaign for Albion.

Last summer saw the Chelsea youth starlet join another team on loan. This time it was Crystal Palace who secured the Englishman's signature on a temporary basis until the end of the campaign.

With 25 league appearances under his belt at this stage of the season, the 22-year-old has quadrupled the number of goals he netted in a West Brom shirt, also providing one more assist with a significant number of games left to play.

One of his goals with the south London club caught the attention of Palace podcaster Dan Cook, who tweeted to his near-100k followers that the midfielder's second goal against West Ham United last August was "outrageous."

In addition to his impressive goal contributions, the midfielder has earned an overall performance rating of 7.26/10 from WhoScored, making him the highest-rated player in Patrick Vieira's squad.

In October 2020, shortly after making the move on loan to the Hawthorns, Transfermarkt had Gallagher's market value listed at £4.86m. It now stands at a massive £19.8m, which is an increase of 307%, presumably due to his respectable period at West Brom and storming season with Palace.

Taking all this into account, there will surely be plenty of Baggies fans wishing that their club were able to sign the Chelsea youngster on a permanent deal after his loan spell, believing that the Albion hierarchy made a mistake in not doing so.

However, it seems likely that their relegation from the top flight would have worked against them in any attempts to convince the midfielder to pledge his future to the Midlands club.

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