Carlos Corberan provides clarity on West Brom salary reduction and makes 'forever growing' claim

For the first time, the head coach has confirmed the club faced a 30 per cent reduction in the squad's salary due to financial fair play regulations as they prepared for a first full season under new owner Shilen Patel.

In a fascinating seven-and-a-half minute answer to a question comparing an identical points tally this season to last, Corberan stressed the challenge of improving a squad that reached the Championship play-offs on those financial restrictions.

Corberan also referenced the expectation level of 'Premier League Albion' and how supporters grew frustrated at a club without investment while under Guochuan Lai in the Championship. 

Albion made big changes in the summer with 11 new recruits but many, the head coach hinted, were merely to ensure the squad had enough numbers. Several players were released as the club looked to balance its books and, later in the summer, regulars Okay Yokuslu, Conor Townsend and Brandon Thomas-Asante were sold. Corberan suggested the replacements and a winning, table-topping start to the season boosted expectation. Albion have won just twice in their last 15 games.

The club now appear in safe hands thanks to the Patel-led Bilkul Football takeover though challenges clearly remain, as detailed by the boss, and similar issues will arise next summer as Albion once again must manage their finances due to stringent Championship rules and previous mismanagement.

"I think this year we didn't have financial limitations (such as those from Lai) - we had a massive level of financial restrictions. They are not the same," Corberan spelt out.

"Shilen's project couldn't be there, probably, because we had to decrease 30 per cent the size of the group. So we reduced 30 per cent, in terms of the salary, from the squad that made the play-offs, to face the season.

"We knew what our market was and the club did a very good effort to create the most competitive squad we could.

"But sometimes the expectation changed. We changed many players, they finished their contract, we sold players like Okay, Townsend and Asante - we signed players because we needed to, we lost many players. Sometimes people see signings as a symptom of investment, but in some points it was a symptom of replacements to cover positions.

"We made a lot of changes with financial restrictions - not limitations. But the possibilities to make movements increased that's why we brought (Mikey) Johnston who was here last year - so that's not an improvement, it's trying to arrive to the level we had."

Albion bought Johnston, last season's loan star, for £3million from Celtic at the end of a window after a late change of strategy.

Referencing a frustration among the fanbase historically, he added: "The people have been suffering and not watching the West Bromwich of previous seasons - because we are talking about a Premier League club - when you are Premier League fans, that see Premier League games, you relegate and you don't see investment you like to come back again then frustration is there.

"At some point the start of this season created the hope that we'd be this West Bromwich again that we wanted to be. This is right because the club is building this West Bromwich - but the club is building this West Bromwich according to a different financial situation, without the parachute (payments) and the five-player restrictions (only a maximum of four can be signed on GBE overseas work visa criteria)."

Albion's current run, jam-packed with draws and not enough victories, has drawn criticism from sections of Albion's support. The eighth-placed Baggies, however, are just two points from the play-offs. Corberan has once again been linked with moves elsewhere, and once more to the Premier League, with Southampton understood to be long-term admirers of his work and looking for a new boss after Russell Martin's dismissal.

"I cannot be focused on the expectations of the people," Corberan added. "I need to be focused on the work I do. As a coach I know part of my job is to accept opinions but I don't put attention on criticising of me. I put it in the mentality of the group.

"If the team starts to think in a wrong way it will affect the performance of the team. I always like to take control of the mentality of the team. From when I arrived to this club we have sold much more than we have invested, but from the moment I arrived here I don't think we stopped growing as a team."

The head coach stressed:  "I took the team in a challenging position and we are growing every year. We have created a competitive squad this year in financial restrictions, not because of me, because people here know what West Bromwich represents and the demands of the club.

"This club cannot accept some standards in the Championship. You cannot be a player in West Bromwich Albion and not be a (certain) level of player. West Bromwich is a massive club where you have to compete to win. This is the culture where we are and this is why we like to be here."