West Brom's squad value is set to plummet if the club are relegated from the Premier League, according to Football Insider columnist Kieran Maguire.
As the club sit 19th in the Premier League and seven points from safety, the dreaded thought of relegation will certainly start to creep into the minds of the West Brom faithful.
However, based upon analytics provided by KPMG, Football Insider columnist Maguire believes West Brom's squad value will dramatically fall if they're relegated from the Premier League.
According to KPMG, West Brom's squad value increased from £117.6m to £171.3m in the past year, and Maguire puts that down to the team's promotion to the Premier League during the 2019/20 season.
This is a £53.7m increase, however, the likes of Leeds United and Fulham have seen their squad values rise by over £100m.
“Leeds have a manager who has actively increased the squad value, West Brom don’t have that," Maguire explained to Football Insider.
“West Brom’s squad value has increased and they have recruited some players in getting to the Premier League but only one or two of them have made a significant impact in terms of impressing scouts from other clubs.
“It’s very much been the automatic impact of promotion. And their player values will be absolutely hammered if they go down.”
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It's been documented that former manager Slaven Billic wasn't happy with the level of recruitment going into 2020/21, as per The Athletic.
Billic was said to be shocked to discover the limits of his summer budget heading into West Brom's first season back in the Premier League.
When you compare the summer transfer budgets of Leeds United to West Brom, it really emphasises the level of investment needed to make it in the Premier League.
Over the course of the summer, Leeds United spent £96.4m while West Brom only spent £22.32m.
More pertinently, under the guidance of Marcelo Bielsa, Leeds United have managed to increase the value of a number of players, including the likes of Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford.
Since Bielsa's arrival in summer 2018, for example, Phillips' value on Transfermarkt has risen by around £20m, while Bamford's has more than doubled.
At the Hawthorns, however, it's hard to think of similar examples of players improving immensely under Bilic or Sam Allardyce. Darnell Furlong, Conor Townsend and Romaine Sawyers have grown with the Baggies as they've gained promotion to the Premier League, but not to an extent that they've added huge financial value to the squad.
And right now, Allardyce seems far more focused on getting a quick turnaround of results than improving players long-term. According to Maguire, that could all come back to bite them should West Brom fail to beat the drop.