Albion could come up against one of their former under-23s in the Europa League next season.

Okay, it’s a long shot. The odds are against them drawing Sporting Clube of Portugal in the group stage.

But they are a lot shorter than they would have been when the Sweden international headed out on loan to Coventry City midway through the 2020-21 season.

Albion were 17th in the table and Gyokeres had just scored one goal in 12 games during an underwhelming loan stint in the Championship with Swansea City.

He will become a £20 million forward if add-ons are fulfilled after being picked up by the third member of Portugal’s celebrated Tres Grandes.

The fee is both a record sale for Coventry and the biggest fee paid by Sporting.

They have put Gyokeres on a five-year contract with a buyout clause of 100 million euros.

Albion will pick up a percentage of the profit shown by the Sky Blues.

Figures suggest that would be about £18 million and the undisclosed sell-on is likely to be about 15%.

So modest pickings by Premier League standards but welcome all the same.

But did Albion let one get away in terms of a player who could be doing good things for them now?

The evidence would be there is no need for regrets.

Partly because has not been snapped up by a Premier League club and partly because he is not the player they allowed to go.

Gyokeres was a slow a burner at the Sky Blues and much of the credit for his development is being given in the East Midlands to the one-to-one work of assistant boss Adi Viveash.

Coventry fans were somewhat non-plussed initially when he transferred his loan allegiance from Swansea.

But they were keen to see him sign on a permanent deal by the time his loan ended.

Andy Turner, of the Coventry Telegraph, said: “He grew into the season and got better and better and more confident.

“By the end of the season, people were thinking he had really good potential.

“Adi Viveash had ten years working with Chelsea’s under-18s and development squad and won just about everything going.

“He has this reputation of being a top class development coach.

“Vik is probably one of his biggest successes.

“They have got the best out of him.

“His attributes are he is strong and he is not a typical centre-forward, like a target man.

“He is looking for killer balls into feet just past the halfway line.

“He will run at defenders off either flank, usually down the channels, cut into the box and smack it past the keeper.

“They are his trademark goals.

“He has played in a two and also a lot on his own with a box midfield so two attacking midfielders supporting him.

“He drifts wide and cuts in and that tends to be out to the left, although he can do the right as well.

“He links up every well with wing-backs.

“He didn’t score a lot of goals towards the end of the season but he was providing a lot of assists.”

Turner believes there is more to come from Gyokeres and he can progress with Sporting.

It did not feel like Gyokeres had the all-round game to work in a Graham Potter side.

But his ability to drift wide will ring a bell with Albion fans.

He often played down the left in his time with the Seagulls under-23s given that Aaron Connolly worked the central role so successfully.

It looked like Gyokeres might be close to a breakthrough when he played in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup almost three years ago.

He scored a first senior goal in the tie against Portsmouth although The Argus gave him a mixed review, writing: “Employed as a lone striker and found it tough at times. Maybe should have scored with the first half shot MacGillivray saved. But that could have been Glenn Murray at the end, holding off a defender and turning one way, then the other before finishing.”

It did not necessarily feel like he was demanding a Prem place and Potter allowed him to go out on loan.

The rest has been history – and seems to have worked well for all parties.