West Bromwich Albion face a potential battle to bring Daryl Dike to The Hawthorns in January.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by Alan Nixon, with The Sun journalist revealing in a post on Twitter that Crystal Palace very much have the Orlando City centre-forward on their radar for the January transfer window.

In response to a fan asking for an update on Palace's interest in Dike, Nixon said: "Dike very much on the radar. But was always more likely to be a January job."

Previous reports have claimed that Valerien Ismael is also keen on a deal for his former loanee at Barnsley, with a January deal appearing much easier to get over the line than this summer, as the MLS season will have then drawn to a close.

Ismael will be gutted

Considering the fact that Patrick Vieira secured the £14.67m signing of Celtic centre-forward Odsonne Edouard on transfer deadline day, a deal that appeared to suggest Palace would be out of the running for Dike this January, the news that the Premier League side still seem to be in the race for the 21-year-old is sure to have left Ismael gutted.

Indeed, while the Frenchman did manage to add Jordan Hugill to his squad prior to the closure of the summer transfer window, with only the Norwich City loanee and the out of favour Kenneth Zohore who could be described as a classic number nine in the 45-year-old's first team, it would appear as if West Brom are still somewhat short of depth in the position.

And, considering Dike's form for Orlando so far this season, in addition to his returns while on loan at Barnsley last time out, the USA international would certainly appear to make an excellent January signing for the Baggies.

Indeed, over his six MLS appearances for Oscar Pareja's side this term, the £9m-rated man has bagged three goals and registered one assist, as well as taking an average of 1.8 shots and making 0.5 key passes per game.

These metrics have seen the player Ismael himself dubbed an "unbelievable" talent earn an average SofaScore match rating of 7.15, ranking him as his side's third-best performer in the division.

Furthermore, over the 21-year-old's 19 Championship appearances for the Tykes last season, Dike scored nine goals and averaged a SofaScore match rating of 7.02 - returns which ranked him as Barnsley's third-best player in the second tier of English football.

As such, it would indeed seem as if the youngster would make a tremendous addition to Ismael's options up top in January, however, with Palace still sniffing around the striker, whether or not a move for the hitman will be feasible for Albion remains to be seen.

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