Season review- It’s not about results for West Brom's under-23s
The first team may still have three games left but the dust has already settled on the under-23s’ season.
A mixed bag of results saw the side finish ninth in Division Two of Premier League 2 after a 16-game winless streak from October to March.
But as boss James Shan explains, the primary aim is to prepare players for Tony Pulis’s first team, and on that basis, it’s been a success.
Pulis started 19-year-old Sam Field on Saturday, and he’s also handed minutes to Jonathan Leko, 18, and Kane Wilson, 17, while Rekeem Harper, 17, has made the bench four times.
“The main goal is to get players in and around the first team,” said Shan. “We’ve had massive success with that with Rekeem, Jonathan, Sam and Kane. That’s also been magnified down at the training ground with players training with the first team on a regular basis.
“Last week Max Melbourne (18), Dara O’Shea (18), and Callum Morton (17) were all in first-team training so from that point of view, highly successful.”
The under-23s got off to a flying start this season, winning six of their first nine games, before that long winless run put paid to any hopes of promotion.
But as Shan explains, the club have sent the majority of his best players out on loan so the under-23s has regularly featured a younger crop of players.
“It’s been a challenging season in terms of having different squads, different players from week to week,” he said. “No matter what level you play at, that makes it difficult to get that team cohesion.
“We’ve probably been one of the youngest teams in our league.
“You have to judge the success of 23s very differently. Our last positive performance against Norwich here when we won the game, we had six first year scholars on the pitch. It’s mixed emotions because as a coach I want to win. We were probably above expectations during the first half of the season, in terms of our league position and results, before falling away during the second half of the season.
“As a football club we know the reasons behind that, and ultimately it’s about getting players into the first team squad. We’ve got four there on a regular basis so that’s a massive success.”
Pulis has kept the likes of Field and Leko because of his small senior squad, but he is keen to get as many youngsters out on loan as he possibly can to give them a taste of men’s football. This season, several of the group have been given chances in League One, League Two and the National League.
“The loans have been a little bit indifferent with the levels of success,” admitted Shan. “Shaun Donnellan (20) has had a lot of success and reached the National League play-offs with Dagenham.
“Tahvon Campbell (20) hasn’t got the game time we thought he would at Notts County after having two reasonably successful loans at Yeovil.
“Kyle Howkins (21) had a very positive first half of the season at Mansfield Town, got injured, had a couple of illnesses and niggles, and has found it difficult since Steve Evans went in.
“Tyler Roberts (18) got some minutes at Oxford in the first half of the season and second half of the season he went to Shrewsbury, had lots of man of the match performances and was named their young player of the year. So there’s been highs and lows.”
It’s likely to be a similar story next season, when the best young players who aren’t in the first team will be sent out on loan, meaning Shan will play a young group in the under-23s again.
“I’d say 75 per cent of our under-23 players will go out on loan next year,” said Shan. “We want to expose them to the real football. So we’ll be young again, we’ll be exposing first and second team scholars to 23s football.”
But with England youth internationals like Rayhaan Tulloch, Tom Solanke, and Jamie Soule (all 16) emerging, he’s excited about the group coming through.
“The first team scholars coming into the building next season are deemed a talented group in the schoolboy programme,” said Shan. “Lots of them have already got international recognition. In terms of quality and talent, we’ll be stronger than we have been in previous years.”
The club want to give younger players earlier exposure to under-23s football and men’s football, so they are being more ruthless further up the age groups.
“Our retention of under-19 and under-18 players, in previous years we’ve generally kept on more players than we have this year,” said Shan. “There’s been a sterner examination of our players and their potential.”
Sowhat are the aims for next season?
“We want the four that have been around the first team to cement themselves in that squad,” he said. “If that isn’t the case then hopefully they’ll go out and get some really valuable experience at a high level, a club in the Championship or top end of League One.
“From a 23s group, it’s just about getting players through. We’ve got to identify quickly who can be the next pack. The goal is to develop those players to get them in the first team, and if not, get them careers. We take massive pride of that in this academy, if players aren’t involved in the football club, they get a career in the game.”
And those that have moved on have netted the club a significant amount of cash this season.
Saido Berahino’s sale to Stoke City brought in £12million rising to a possible £15m, but Kemar Roofe’s £3million transfer from Oxford United to Leeds United netted Albion £1.2m because of a 40 per cent sell-on clause in his contract.
