No stockpiling from West Brom's academy as focus turns to younger crop

This week they released 14 youth team players in an effort to slimline the academy and give ample space to a promising batch of under-16s.

And as academy manager Mark Harrison explains, it may be ruthless, but it’s the best thing for both the club, and quite often, the players in question too.

“We’re a little bit different, we don’t just keep players on for the sake of it,” he said. “We don’t have 40 to 60 young professionals like the big Premier League clubs.

“The reality is, how many of them are going to get through? Academies are there to produce players for the first team, you should never lose sight of that.

“Some of those players that we haven’t renewed, we could have, but it’s in their interest to move on.

“Some of them have been here 10 or 11 years, there’s a hell of an emotional attachment, but you have to make the right decision for the player and the club.

“Whilst you may want to keep a few of them to give your under-18s and under-23s strength in depth next season because of age and experience, you’ve got to be fair and let them have an opportunity to grow elsewhere.

“We like to open the pathway for the younger players coming through. Next year will be a challenge, because we will be younger.

“But we look at every position, if we’ve got a better player coming through, that player might have more potential than the one already there.”

Albion’s under-23s and under-18s are going to be younger than ever next season, with those experienced players who have been kept on like Jack Fitzwater, Shaun Donnellan, and Tahvon Campbell sent out on loan.

This approach is in line with head coach Tony Pulis’s view that by the time players reach 18 and 19 they should be tasting men’s football.

But part of this week’s cull is down to an exciting under-16 group pushing a lot of their older equivalents out of the door.

“We’ve got an under-16 group that are quite highly respected around the country,” said Harrison. “The likes of Jamie Soule and Rayhaan Tulluch have been involved in the England set-up, so you want to make sure they’ve got the pathway through.”

Both Soule and Tulloch trained with Pulis and the first team last season, but they’re not the only ones.

Supporters will know of Sam Field and Jonathan Leko, but Albion’s head coach has looked at players much younger.

“Tony has been excellent at integrating the academy players,” said Harrison. “They’ve had 14 and 15 year olds train with them this season, not just as a gesture, but because Tony wants to know who are the players coming through and showing the right attitude. I couldn’t ask for anything more from first team staff.”

Five years ago, the academy obtained category one status, and Harrison reckons the Baggies are now starting to reap the rewards of that.

It’s not just the under-16s, the under-14s are an exciting bunch too, having beaten Manchester City and Liverpool on their way to the Premier League Albert Phelan North Cup.

Harrison has been at the club for 12 years, but the victory over City was the best youth performance he’s ever seen. This Friday, they face Arsenal in the super final.

“Man City’s under-14s probably cost more than Mansfield’s first team,” said Harrison. “They’re paying half a million for people in that age group.

"That’s what people don’t appreciate, they’re spending seven or eight times as much as us on their academy.

“We have one of the lowest category one academy budgets, but our players are flying the flag for the area.

“We’ve got 26 full-time staff which covers a range of areas, sports science, medicine, coaching, operations, recruitment, minibus drivers, education and welfare.

“That is one of the lowest workforces in the Premier League, if you double that, that’s what the big six are working with.”

The academy’s strong financial footing is one Harrison is proud of. Four years ago, Jeremy Peace considered scrapping the academy after investing £2.5million into it before receiving just £209,000 of compensation when Chelsea poached a 16-year-old Izzy Brown.

But the academy has made plenty of money recently. Saido Berahino was sold to Stoke City for £12million rising to a possible £15m and Albion also received £1.2m in sell-on fees when Kemar Roofe went to Leeds United.

“Looking at the balance sheet now, we’re doing well,” said Harrison. “We’re running in the black as an academy, if you’re doing that and you’ve got some players near first team, you’re doing well.

“Money isn’t everything though. It’s about creating the right environment. We’ve got a group of people prepared to go the extra mile to try and help our players develop, not just as footballers, but as people.

“We hear about the success stories, but some of the players that haven’t been given new contracts are off to America to do scholarships.

“That’s fantastic for me. Getting a 19 or 20-year-old to do a four year scholarship that they would never have done before that means as much to me as getting Sam or Jon or Kane into the first team.”

Sometimes, that isn’t even the end of their association with the Baggies.

“A number of our coaching staff are ex-academy players,” said Harrison. “Leigh Downing is now under-14s coach, he came through system went off and got a degree, and ended up coming back and working in our academy.”

Downing's youngsters will get their chance to impress, that's for sure, but if this summer is anything to go by, they will need to take it early.