Corberan must now ditch West Brom star who earns even more than Maja

West Bromwich Albion will hope they can get back to winning ways in the Championship this coming Sunday after falling to a narrow 2-1 loss to Watford last time out.

Winning their next clash versus Bristol City at the Hawthorns would set them up nicely for two away days in quick succession before 2024 is out, with a tough tie against table-toppers Sheffield United closing out the busy year.

Even as the fixtures come thick and fast around this bumper Christmas period, Carlos Corberan will likely keep selecting Josh Maja to lead the line, who has more than turned around his Baggies career this campaign.

Maja’s heroics at West Brom

Although he has fired blanks across his last five games in the tricky league, the Spaniard has continued to select the former Sunderland man, knowing he can rifle the back of the net with an effort in the blink of an eye.

After all, the clinical 25-year-old has only averaged a mere 26 touches per Championship clash this season, but still has a very impressive goal haul of ten from 20 games to boast about.

Even as his output in front of goal has dried up of late, he still managed to pick up an assist towards the start of the month when the Baggies valiantly rescued a share of the points versus the Blades, having linked up with assist king Tom Fellows well to level the game at 2-2.

Whilst Maja’s space in the side is understandably concrete, the same cannot be said for Grady Diangana anymore, who had started to fall way down Corberan’s pecking order even before his recent injury troubles popped up.

Diangana’s future at West Brom

With his contract up next summer, the time could soon be coming for West Brom to have a conversation with Diangana about his future at the second-tier outfit.

Just glancing at his high wage in Corberan’s camp is enough to think a parting of the ways will soon happen, with the Congolese winger earning a steep £20.3k-per-week pay packet, which makes him a higher earner than even Maja who rakes in a surprisingly lesser £17k-per-week salary.

At least with Maja, it’s been well-documented how excellent he’s been this season, whereas Diangana was struggling even before injury disaster struck for him in November.

Last season in the Championship, the ex-West Ham United attacker picked up a sublime seven goals and eight assists, but he has nothing to show for his efforts during a dismal 2024/25 campaign to date.

Looking at the table above, Diangana has suddenly become a reserve figure for the Baggies, with no goals and zero assists to shout about when he is unleashed into the action by Corberan.

Of course, the experienced forward hasn’t been helped by his luck with injuries – having now been absent since West Brom’s trip to Hull City last month – but his lack of game time hasn’t really impacted his side in their pursuit of promotion.

Once dazzling his adoring set of supporters with showboat-laden displays, with one of his West Brom teammates, Jed Wallace, even labelling him as “unbelievable” in the past, Corberan just isn’t that reliant on the 26-year-old to be a bright spark anymore, when you also consider he has Fellows and Mikey Johnston to call on down the channels.

This January could be the perfect opportunity for West Brom to cut ties with their loyal servant, therefore, before he is allowed to leave for nothing, managing to perhaps recoup a fee before going full steam ahead to try and return to the Premier League.