Dwight Gayle says permanent deal to West Brom 'could be on the cards'

The Baggies' top scorer scored a classy treble away at Rotherham United on Saturday to move up to 13 goals for the season.

It prompted calls of 'sign him up' from the sold-out away end, and Gayle has left the door open for a permanent switch.

"I don't know really, it could be on the cards," he said. "For me the most important thing is getting promoted this season and finishing in the top two.

"We all know what we've got to do and we've got a lot of hard work before the end of the season to do that. I'm loving it here at the moment and hopefully that continues."

Gayle is on a season-long loan swap from Newcastle with Salomon Rondon, but the Magpies are contemplating a permanent offer for the Venezuelan in January in order to free up one of their loan spots.

Newcastle are paying a portion of Gayle's wages, so Albion want a cash sweetener if the swap was made permanent next month.

But Darren Moore refused to get drawn onto the topic of a potential permanent move in January.

“We’ve not even spoken about that," said Moore. “We’ve got him here. It’s a swap deal with Rondon going the other way. All we’re doing is focusing on the football."

Gayle's hat-trick was a fairytale because he'd told team-mates he wanted the match ball for Christmas.

"We were talking on the bus before the game," he said. "Jake (Livermore) said he wanted to get everyone a gift.

"I said I'd be happy with three points and a hat-trick, it's weird that it ended up happening."

But he revelled in the opportunity to rub his team-mates' faces in the fact he'd pulled clear of them in the race to be Albion top scorer.

"(Kieran) Gibbs and (Matt) Phillips have got their own little competitiong going," he revealed. "Me, Jay (Rodriguez) and Harvey (Barnes) have got our little thing going.

"It's nice, it gives good competition to try and be successful.

"Gibbo's trying to score at the end and Matty's thinking don't score! It's obviously just tongue in cheek, a bit of banter.

"It's not even bragging rights, other players will drop little bombs in there to start things off and wind you up.

"Little sly comments and get out of the way before we start arguing between us. It's all fun!"

Gayle had only scored one goal away from home before his hat-trick at the New York Stadium.

"There's been a few things said," he admitted. "Obviously I'd only scored one away from home this season, so I'm pleased to top up the tally.

"It's probably come up recently more than anything. I hadn't really thought about it. I hadn't noticed anything different from my game home and away."

But his favourite goal of the three was his first, a free-kick whipped under the wall.

"I spoke about it beforehamd with Bonner (assistant coach Graeme Jones)," he revealed. "I've scored one like that before.

"Obviously with it being so close, it was difficult to get up and over, I just thought I'd hit it under the wall and luckily it went in."