Steve Bruce reveals the West Brom player he scouted as Newcastle United boss

Steve Bruce is pleased that utilising Karlan Grant as a striker, rather than an inside forward, paid off at Hull City as he revealed he sent scouts to watch the West Brom player during his Huddersfield Town days.

West Brom welcome the Terriers to The Hawthorns on Friday night and Grant, who joined Albion in a deal worth £15m in the summer of 2020, will face many of his former teammates having returned to the goals the MKM Stadium.

Slaven Bilic had earmarked him as a striker, but Grant found openings hard to come by in a struggling Premier League team. This season, though, he has 12 goals to his name and is eyeing more.

Could that be through the middle in a front two? Albion boss Bruce was pleased with what he saw of Grant at Hull and noted his traits as he explained that he’d made checks on him via his assistants while in charge of Newcastle United.

That season, Grant plundered 19 goals in a struggling Huddersfield side.

“I saw him at Charlton as a kid, and I always thought he was a striker,” Bruce said. “At Huddersfield, I sent Stephen Clemence and Steve Agnew to watch him when we were first in at Newcastle. They came back with a glowing report.

“I sent them to watch him and he was a centre forward. When you look at the statistics he’s got and he’s got one in three in the Championship. We needed to do something.

“I always enjoy playing two up top, whether it’s a number ten and a number nine, or however you want to play it.

“Thankfully it worked. I thought the two of them were a threat and Karlan’s basic threat is that he wants to run in behind, which is important these days.”