West Bromwich Albion kicked off the new Ryan Mason era with a victory at the Hawthorns last time out as the former Tottenham Hotspur coach picked up a debut three points as a rookie manager.
The Baggies just about edged past opponents Blackburn Rovers on the intense opening day in the Championship, as Isaac Price proved to be the difference-maker between the two sides with an early first-half effort.
Former West Brom manager Valerien Ismael could only watch on with a grimace from the opposing dug-out as he was undone by the 33-year-old, who was helped by Aune Heggebo putting in a standout performance during his first outing donning Baggies blue and white.
Heggebo’s standout debut for West Brom
While Price stole the limelight with the only goal of the day, Heggebo did play a key role in the ex-Everton youngster lapping up the plaudits.
Indeed, the Nordic attacker was alert to the action unfolding around him after a long throw-in from Darnell Furlong caused confusion, leading to West Brom’s £4.7m summer buy laying it off to Price to tap a shot home.
His efforts against the Riversiders didn’t go unnoticed, either, with Heggebo actually winning himself a place in the Championship Team of the Week off the back of the former Brann attacker also winning 11 duels in the hard-fought win, as per Sofascore.
But, there will be a worry that he won’t cut it at the intimidating level when it comes to actually picking up the goals, having only fired two weak efforts at the Blackburn goal on Saturday.
This is where Mason could dip his toes back into the market to win himself an EFL-ready goal machine, with a £7m attacker potentially on his radar.
West Brom could look at signing £3m attacker
Over-relying on Heggebo to deliver the goods does feel as if it could backfire on the Baggies, particularly if the pressure is ramped up on the Scandinavian forward’s shoulders in the intense heat of a promotion race.
This is where Wycombe Wanderers’ Richard Kone could come to the rescue, with the former non-league striker turned EFL gem piquing a lot of interest in the Championship this summer regarding his availability, having been allegedly subject to a £7m bid in recent times from Luton Town.
The 22-year-old striker has experienced quite the rapid rise from the non-league pitches of Essex to leading the line for the Chairboys with some venom.
However, despite his form, he could be available as cheap as £3m now, according to football journalist Ron Walker, which might well even spur the Championship side into making a bid.
His explosive track record in the EFL automatically makes him an upgrade on Heggebo, who is still learning the ropes of the English game, with EFL-oriented pundit Gabriel Sutton even labelling Kone’s heroics in front of goal at Adams Park as “extraordinary.”
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Kone at Wycombe vs Heggebo at Brann |
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|---|---|---|
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Stat |
Kone |
Heggebo |
|
Games played |
74 |
146 |
|
Goals scored |
25 |
51 |
|
Assists |
9 |
14 |
|
Hat tricks |
1x |
0 |
|
Goals per game |
0.33 |
0.34 |
|
Sourced by Transfermarkt |
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While the table above does look to swing initially in the favour of Heggebo, Kone is only 26 strikes shy of matching his counterpart’s goal tally for Brann, with his exploits last season for Wycombe making him look ready-made for a step-up in quality.
A blistering 21 of those efforts would come near the very top of League One last season, with the brand-new Baggies number 19 only registering 11 goals all of last year in the Nordic top-flight, on the contrary.
Further dubbed as a “mentality monster” by football writer Kai Watson, Kone should be able to take the pressures of the Championship in his stride if his League One prowess is anything to go by.
Heggebo could be forced to take a back seat if Kone were to join, however, but he shone in a more subdued role on the opening day anyway, as West Brom tries to fire in the goals no matter who scores them to seal promotion.
