Albion Outlook: Fans offer their thoughts on West Brom in Austria

Dave Challoner, Pat Frost, and Matthew Hughes made the long journey ahead of Albion's game with Czech champions Slavia Prague in Kumberg on Wednesday (5pm local time, 4pm UK time.)

Baggies reporter Matt Wilson caught up with the trio in Graz and spoke to them about the current state of affairs.

Dave Challoner, 33, Netherton

We drove 21 hours door-to-door so it's nailed on to be a 0-0 draw after that! Obviously it'll be good to see Jay Rodriguez, he's a good signing for us if we can keep him fit.

That's what we're quite good at, keeping players fit. It'd be value for money at ₤15m, because he's a proven Premier League striker.

There's a World Cup next year, he'll want to be involved and England are not well off for strikers so it's an opportunity for him too.

And I'm looking forward to seeing the young lads. Kane Wilson, Leko, and obviously Sam Field. I think he might get more of a chance with Fletcher going.

The Chadli one is difficult, he got an injury back end of last season. It's personal preference for him, is he right or wrong? Not sure.

As a fan, the summer has been quite slow, but for me there's no player gone anywhere where you think 'I'd have him'.

Jermain Defoe is a good signing for Bournemouth but for me, they need to strengthen the spine of the side. You've got Ben Foster, keep Jonny Evans, get a central midfielder and maybe a winger.

They're probably three or four players off, but they need to be better than what we've got, there's no point signing players for the sake of it and I don't think we'll do that.

It's frustrating for fans but it's not too negative.

Pat Frost, 51, Telford

The journey was good. A little walk in the park for me at 21 hours, I've done Turkey and Russia in the past.

I'm a little bit biased, so I'd like to see the armband going back to Brunty, I think it'll go to Evans but personally I'd be giving it to Brunty.

It's very important to keep Evans, I hear fans talking about who they want in but for me the most important thing is to get him tied down to make sure he's here for the next two or three season.

If the lad from Burnley has just gone for ₤30m I'm pretty sure we can't let him go for anything less.

Chris Smalling's name keeps cropping up, I've seen Kieren Gibbs linked, there's one or two knocking around out there so I'm sure we'll pick one of those up.

I'd take both of those, but not in place of Jonny Evans, I'd take them in addition to getting Evans signed up.

I don't necessarily think defence is the main area that needs strengthening, we seem to be pretty good there, we could do with another striker and maybe another midfielder.

Matt Hughes, 32, Warley

It's the first time I've come to Austria, we saw some amazing views when you start climbing up the Alps so it was quite special. The last tour I went to was when we played Venlo a few years ago. I don't think there will be that many here though because they've got Hong Kong coming up and Deportivo.

I don't know much about Guochuan Lai, a lot of people were saying he's quite wealthy with a lot of business in China.

I just hope he shows some ambition and puts some money into the club because we all know Albion have got the money but they're quiet.

They seem to be scared to make that jump, I'd love to see him splash ₤25-30m on a player just to show some willingness towards the club, to show he's here for the long haul and not just to benefit him. We'll have to wait and see I suppose.

It would be nice to see Carvalho come, it's alright signing players for 10-12m and I know they've got to be the right breed of players but they need to start moving into the next era of players, show some ambition and bring some youth through.

I've heard Zhang is one of the best young Chinese talents out there. We'll see if he gets a chance with us after the loan deal.

It's to build the brand over in China. I think it's new to the club, under Jeremy Peace we were not well-known in different countries.

A lot of other clubs are doing it now, why can't West Brom? We're established in the Premier League now, so it's time to get known in other countries.