West Bromwich Albion have been liable for the occasional transfer blunder over recent years, many of which stood as big risks to either ensure their survival or safety, depending on which division they were in at the time.

Whilst some have been more expensive than others, Romaine Sawyers is one which stands out as quite a significant misstep despite the total expenditure only being £3.6m.

Signed in 2019 for £3m from Championship rivals Brentford, there were high hopes for the attacking midfielder who had just registered seven assists the season prior.

However, 153 weeks and 64 appearances later, the 30-year-old would register just one goal and one assist across his career at the Hawthorns.

What makes this even worse is that both of these contributions came during the 2019/20 season.

The £12.5k-per-week dud has since spent time on loan at Stoke City before joining Cardiff City this year, where he registered five goal contributions for the Potters in one season and already has two goals this term for the Bluebirds.

It seemed like they had performed a real coup with this deal initially, but since it has turned into something of a nightmare for the Baggies.

Although Steve Madeley tried to praise Sawyers for an impressive 45 minutes in November of 2020, he still admitted that “he’s had some poor games”. With his statistics to show, that seems like something of a gross understatement.

In his debut season at the Hawthorns, he featured in all 42 Championship games and yet created just three big chances.

The fact that he also missed zero big chances is even more damning than had he missed plenty. At least then that would suggest he had been unlucky, but was in the right areas.

The only promising aspects of his game that year were his 68% dribble success rate, and 90% pass accuracy, however, this paints the picture of a safe and unspectacular player. West Brom needed much more than that from their attacking midfielder.

Although the financial outlay has not bankrupted the Midlands club, it still represents precious money wasted that they obviously couldn’t afford this season, as they spent just £1.21m this summer.

Sawyers was a disappointment and a certain waste of money.