West Brom boss Sam Allardyce is desperately in need of further additions at the Hawthorns if he's to stand a chance of keeping them up this season.

At the weekend, more misery was compounded on the Midlands outfit as they embarrassingly crashed out of the FA Cup with a defeat to League One side Blackpool on penalties.

It leaves them with the sole goal of survival in the Premier League, something that is looking harder to achieve as each week passes by.

Only two teams have scored fewer goals than the Baggies, one of which is rock-bottom Sheffield United, who are the only side to lose to Albion this term.

Clearly, the need for extra firepower is staring everyone right in the face.

However, it was emphasised at the weekend as Big Sam fielded an XI without a recognised striker and by the end of the day, Charlie Austin was confirmed as a QPR player for the remainder of the season.

With Karlan Grant on the treatment table for at least six weeks, West Brom absolutely have to bolster their frontline this transfer window.

And whilst Albion were losing, one of their reported targets - Boulaye Dia - delivered a goalscoring masterclass to show Allardyce everything he's currently missing at the club.

Stade de Reims demolished Saint-Etienne 3-1 with the 24-year-old talisman bagging a brace, and per SofaScore, he also recorded a match-high rating of 8.0 and made 92% of his passing attempts.

The £10.8m-rated Senegal international has now scored 12 goals in 17 appearances (1,362 minutes), which is one goal every 80 minutes - far beyond what Albion's summer signing, Grant, has managed having bagged just once in 12 starts (867 minutes).

According to The Athletic, Dia could command around £12.5m this month, which on the face of it, could be a bargain considering Slaven Bilic splashed a similar fee (£12m) to Huddersfield for the misfiring forward.

Liverpool winger Sadio Mane, his international teammate, was left wowed by his potential in October, he said: "I’m really impressed with his qualities. He will not stay at Reims for long, believe me."

Only PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe can match his tally for goals scored in Ligue 1 this season.

Dia would surely be a fantastic solution to Big Sam's ongoing Baggies nightmare - Luke Dowling must convince Guochuan Lai to stump up the cash. It could be game-changing.

AND in other news, £40k-p/w "huge character" could become WBA's next Zoltan Gera...