Former Leeds United and England defender turned pundit Danny Mills has spoken out and given his thoughts on West Brom signing Charlie Austin.

Austin completed a move to the Hawthorns on deadline day, signing for the Baggies on a permanent deal for a fee in the region of £4m.

The former Burnley and QPR man has plenty of experience in the tank and has scored goals where ever he has played his football, but following a selection of niggling injuries over the last few years, Mills believes West Brom need to carefully manage Austin in order to maximise his output.

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“If you use him sparingly, that’s going to be the key. He’s struggled with injuries in the past but if he’s not going to play week in, week out – you’ve got to use him as and when needs be, when his body is right". Mills told Football Insider.

“Keep him fit and you’ve got a real player on your hands. I don’t think he can play Saturday, Tuesday throughout the season. If you’ve got one or two injury problems or niggles, it’s really tough to do that and stay sharp.”

Austin will be hoping to fill the void left by the departure of Dwight Gayle, who remained at Newcastle throughout the summer and is seemingly set to fight for his place under new manager Steve Bruce.

The 30-year-old's last stint in the Championship yielded ten goals in 12 games for QPR, and that sort of ratio would go down nicely with Baggies manager Slaven Bilic.

The Verdict

Mills has a point with this one in fairness despite taking some stick in recent weeks for some of his opinions.

Austin should be a more or less guarantee of goals at Championship level, and despite Mills' comments, he is still only 30.

Strikers often go into their prime around this time in their career, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see Austin hit his best period of form and fire the Baggies to promotion.