West Bromwich Albion's Championship season derailed at a worryingly quick pace last campaign.

Heading into Christmas last year, the Baggies were just about holding onto a playoff spot in sixth position, but right after Carlos Corberan's exit to Valencia was confirmed, West Brom's promotion push fell off a cliff.

Their woes on the pitch weren't helped whatsoever by their demoralising striker situation, as the majority of 2025 in the second tier for the Baggies had to be endured without 12-goal menace Josh Maja leading the line owing to injury.

He will be back and raring to go under Ryan Mason's guidance, but more strength in depth is desperately needed up top just in case Maja suffers from another season-ending setback, with Leyton Orient goalscoring sensation Charlie Kelman now reportedly on the shopping list.

West Brom's ongoing pursuit of Kelman

With Daryl Dike also prone to a long-standing issue in the Hawthorns treatment room, it's no shock to see West Brom are attempting to be proactive in adding more stars to their often depleted centre-forward department.

Journalist Darren Witcoop first revealed at the tail-end of June that West Brom were keen on adding the Queens Park Rangers outcast to their squad this summer after an explosive loan stint with Richie Wellens' O's.

Even though Orient would come up short in their bid to win promotion to the Championship, Kelman would still manage to come out on top as the division's top goalscorer, with a lethal 26 strikes coming his way in all competitions.

Yet, the 23-year-old has seriously struggled in the second tier previously - with no goals next to his name from 23 appearances in the unforgiving league - meaning other targets might well be sought after by Mason and Co, with one loanee also on the Baggies' radar potentially even more exciting than the golden boot recipient joining the club.

The "phenomenal" attacker who is more exciting than Kelman

One bonus of having Mason in the dug-out is his connections to the Premier League, with the 33-year-old perhaps able to raid ex-club Tottenham Hotspur for some of their top, young assets.

Will Lankshear is certainly one up-and-coming talent that could tick many of West Brom's boxes in their search for a deadly, new striker, with reports recently suggesting a move for the 20-year-old to return to the Hawthorns on a loan basis is on the cards.

Of course, there may be some hesitancy on West Brom's end about diving back in to land the promising striker - considering he netted zero times last season during a brief loan stint - but it's clear he has more to give away from these struggles, having already bagged a senior strike for Spurs.

Indeed, Lankshear was arguably shoved into the deep-end last campaign at the height of West Brom's problems on the pitch, with his unbelievable goal record at youth level in North London potentially ready to come to the surface in men's football now, especially as a familiar face in Mason - who worked closely beside him at Spurs in youth circles - would be by his side.

Staggeringly, despite playing 148 games less than Kelman, the four-time England U20 international is only 15 goals off matching the ex-Orient loanee's entire career goal tally, albeit from primarily playing Premier League 2 football.

Still, with Kelman only managing a meagre 13 goals from 101 clashes away from his celebrated O's spell, the "phenomenal" youngster - as he was once labelled by football journalist John Wenham - could well be deemed as the better option.

After all, the QPR reserve attacker would also cost a significant fee to win, which makes the move even riskier when assessing his patchy goalscoring record away from East London.

Whereas, Lankshear would be picked up temporarily, with the 20-year-old no doubt eager to right his earlier West Brom wrongs if he were to join as the Baggies gun for promotion glory.