Premier League: Brown Ideye needs time to settle at West Brom, says Alan Irvine

Alan Irvine has called on those expecting big things from Brown Ideye to give the striker time to settle at West Bromwich Albion.

The Nigeria international moved to The Hawthorns over the summer in a club-record £10million deal.

Issues regarding a work permit delayed his arrival into Irvine’s ranks, preventing him from getting much of a pre-season under his belt.

That has left the 25-year-old playing catch-up and he is yet to open his account for his new employers.

Irvine is, however, confident that a proven frontman will come good and would like to see those questioning Ideye and comparing him to former loanee Romelu Lukaku give a man experiencing the Premier League for the first time space in which to find his feet.

He said after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Everton, which saw Lukaku among the goals for his new employers: “There’s a big difference between the two of them, there’s a big difference in terms of the money straight away.

“There’s also a big difference in terms of what they’ve had to go through to be at this point.

“Romelu, who clearly has the greatest of respect here because of the job that he did when he was here, is a player who understands the Premier League, he’s done the pre-season and he spent last season playing for Everton, so he’s not out of condition, trying to understand what is going on in this country.

“He’s extremely settled at Everton, he understands exactly what is required of him, the Everton players understand what is required to play to his strengths as well, so it would be really difficult to judge Brown Ideye in the same way as you would Romelu.

“Brown has been one of the ones who has been thrown into the deep end a little bit early as far as I’m concerned, but he’ll benefit from that as it goes on.

“He shows good things in training and he needs me, the staff, to give him time to settle. It’s been a big ask for him.”