Branislav Ivanovic to West Brom seems like one of the weirdest transfers to have been thrown up this summer.

Signing a 36-year-old under any circumstances is bound to raise a few eyebrows, especially when you consider Ivanovic will have hardly any sell-on value, and he’s a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment having not played in England for three years, and during that time his legs might have gone.

However, even if he has declined physically, he could be a valuable asset to the Baggies’ dressing room, and this is a tactic we’ve previously seen employed by highly-successful newly-promoted sides.

The go-to examples of promoted sides getting it right are of course Wolves in 2018/19 and Sheffield United in the season just gone, and one thing those two teams both did was to get in players who had loads of experience and had a winning mentality.

Wolves signed Champions League regulars Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio, while Sheffield United’s experience came in the shape of an ageing Phil Jagielka.

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Now, nobody is going to claim that Jagielka was the key to the Blades’ success, as the centre-back trio of Chris Basham, John Egan and Jack O’Connell was almost impossible to break up last season, but his impact on the dressing room was seemingly brilliant, with the club offering him a new contract due to his leadership abilities.

Ivanovic is of the same mould, he has almost a decade of experience in this league under his belt, and numerous trophies to show for it, and if the mentality and attitude that made him such a winning machine at Chelsea rubs off on the West Brom team, it could be one of their keys to survival this season.

The Serbian may not be the Baggies' best player this term, but his presence could very well lift the whole squad to a slightly higher level.