While West Bromwich Albion are currently benefitting from the tactical tweaks of new manager Carlos Corberan, the Midlands outfit have struggled somewhat this season up front, with Steve Bruce arguably losing his job because of this lack of proficiency.
Both Karlan Grant and Brandon Thomas-Asante have only mustered three Championship goals each this season, and his January signing Daryl Dike has only managed to feature four times over the last year due to his various injuries.
That could perhaps have left fans of the Midlands outfit dreaming of their best strikers of old, who could have helped fire them to a place in the table higher than their current 21st position.
Of the last decade, it can only be Romelu Lukaku who first springs to mind, given how electric he was during his stint.
Signed by Steve Clarke on loan, the Belgian marksman would notch 17 Premier League goals and assist a further seven as he helped the Baggies earn a top-half finish.
To finish 17th the season following would only serve to exacerbate his importance at the Hawthorns.
He would go on to join Everton and later Manchester United, where he scored a further 129, establishing himself as one of the Premier League’s best strikers in recent history and an “animal” in the eyes of former footballer Adebayo Akinfenwa.
Whilst his exploits have arguably been missed ever since he left the Midlands, his recent performance in the World Cup will have fans feeling slightly less jealous of his absence.
Having entered the tournament clearly unfit, he was brought on for his side in their crunch group game against Croatia.
With the score level at 0-0, he was handed the second half to hopefully fire an uninspired Red Devils into the round of 16.
However, what occurred was frankly unprecedented.
Lukaku would miss an astounding four big chances, earning an expected goals of 1.73 without scoring once, via Sofascore.
Not only this, but he was also wasteful in the creation of opportunities, recording just a 63% pass accuracy among his miserable 15 touches.
His misses saw the scoreline remain unchanged, resulting in Belgium’s embarrassing exit from the World Cup.
Alan Shearer was quick to jump to his defence whilst live on the BBC, but did admit: “He was nowhere near ready”. He continued: “He’s only played 31 minutes since August, Gary, so he’s clearly no way near fit and that showed. It can’t all be put down to him, that elimination.”
Despite this, West Brom fans would have been watching and thinking with that kind of finishing, even they wouldn’t take him back.