As things stand, it’s looking pretty bleak for West Brom from a Premier League survival point of view.

The Baggies sit 19th in the Premier League table and at the time of writing find themselves seven points away from safety. Sam Allardyce is the man tasked with keeping West Brom in the top flight, and upon his arrival as manager he made it pretty clear that reinforcements were needed up front.

Cenk Tosun, Josh King and Christian Benteke were all linked with a move to The Hawthorns, but it’s
Mbaye Diagne who has arrived at the club from Galatasaray on a six-month loan – with option to buy – tasked with scoring the goals to keep West Brom up.

But for many, Diagne is a relative unknown and West Brom fans won’t have too much background information about their new recruit. That’s where 90min comes in, providing some crucial things to know about him…

Good news, West Brom fans – Diagne has been prolific in recent seasons.

He scored 32 goals in 36 appearances for Kasimpasa between 2017 and 2019, prompting Turkish giants Galatasaray to make their move. Ten goals in his first 12 appearances followed, before a short spell on loan at Club Bruges.

A further nine goals in Turkey followed, and he arrives at West Brom having scored 11 goals in 19 appearances in all 2020/21 competitions – including a hat-trick in November.

More good news for the Baggies faithful, Diagne will bring a bit of physicality up front – something that Karlan Grant and Callum Robinson have been unable to offer so far.

6’3 tall, he’s more than capable of coming short to hold up the ball and is very good in the air. Big Sam has always liked a target man – thinking Andy Carroll and Kevin Davies here – and Diagne won’t disappoint when it comes to getting stuck in.

28 bookings and two red cards in his career attest to that…

The 29-year old striker has a certain pedigree about him, as well as goals.

He featured in the Champions League group stages last year while on loan at Belgian giants Club Bruges, and has also featured in the Europa League for Galatasaray – scoring twice in the competition’s preliminary rounds this season.

Diagne has earned ten international caps for Senegal, playing alongside the likes of Idrissa Gueye, Ismaila Sarr, Cheikhou Kouyate and, most high profile of all, Sadio Mane.

Although he is yet to score for his country, he played a valuable role in helping them finish runners up in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Big Sam isn’t the only big name manager to have been impressed by the striker.

A record of 23 goals in 29 games for Serie D side AC Bra in the 2012/13 earned Diagne a move to Antonio Conte’s Juventus at the age of 21. However, despite spending two years at the Old Lady, Diagne never donned the famous black and white stripes, and spent most of his time out on loan before moving on.

During his time at Club Bruges, Diagne hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons for a controversial 12-yard mishap against PSG in the Champions League.

He disobeyed Bruges boss Philippe Clement and decided to take penalty duties off the hands of Hanas Venaken, only to produce a tame spot kick that was easily saved by Keylor Navas. He was subsequently dropped from the side and fined – probably best to not disobey Big Sam, eh?

Some may see Diagne’s nomadic trait as a bad thing, but you can’t say that he’s lacking in experience.

Since starting out his career in Italy, he has turned out for teams in Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, China and Turkey – accumulating over 100 career goals.

England will be the seventh country that he has played in; here’s to hoping it’s a memorable stint for the Baggies.