'That's all I'll say': Hilarious story of how West Brom bagged tough tackling Claudio Yacob

Last summer Torbjorn Heggem was an unknown talent who came in, with the likes of Ousmane Diakite and Tammer Bany also arriving during the campaign.

After years of sloppy recruitment from Albion, it was refreshing to see them move back to their old strategy of picking up exciting young talent are cut prices or even on frees.

It was a throwback to the days of Jeremy Peace and Dan Ashworth, when Albion would discover players and then see them go on to make huge impacts on the first time.

And there is one story of Albion's former recruitment of untapped foreign talent that was probed in a past episode of the Express & Star's Baggies Broadcast podcast, with former technical director Dan Ashworth.

Ashworth, who went on to work for the FA, Brighton, Newcastle and Manchester United, before recently returning to the FA, was quizzed on a number of signings during his appearance on the show, including the signing of Claudio Yacob.

Signed from Racing Club in his native Argentina, Albion picked up up on a free and he went on to play more than 160 Premier League games, becoming a firm fan's favourite.

The story of his signing involved a rumour that Ashworth had flown to South American to watch the midfielder in training, but peering over a fence outside the club's training base.

The story was put to Ashworth during his appearance on the show in 2023, and this is what he had to say.

"I couldn't possibly tell you without getting in trouble with the police," joked Ashworth.

"Every signing has its own story and that is why it is such a brilliant job.

"Claudio we tracked for a period of time and he was running his contract down in Argentina, so he wasn't playing.

"There was a stand off but we wanted to see him.

"I wanted to meet him and see him play, but because he wasn't playing it was difficult.

"How did he move, what did he look like, and I managed to find a way to him train, that is all I could say."