Oliver Burke lapping up the lessons at West Brom
Oliver Burke is treasuring the little titbits of advice Albion’s senior professionals are giving him in training each day.
The promising 20-year-old winger has already been transferred twice in his short career, costing a cumulative fee of £28million.
But with just 20 senior starts under his belt, he’s under no illusions that he’s got plenty to learn.
Albion’s summer business brought the average age of the squad down but there is still plenty of experienced heads in the group.
Gareth McAuley turns 38 next month, Gareth Barry is the Premier League’s record appearance maker, while Chris Brunt and James Morrison have been at the club for more than a decade.
And Burke has been eager to tap into that rich font of knowledge.
“They’re the players you want to turn to whenever you have problems or you want to talk about something on the pitch,” he said. “They can always give you advice.
“I’m always getting advice from everybody in training. You learn little bits every day and that’s to treasure really.”
The first few weeks of Burke’s Albion career have been ruined with hamstring problems, but he’s comfortably settled into the dressing room dynamic.
That was important for the Scotsman, because he found it difficult to do during his year at RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.
“It is difficult in another country when you don’t have a clue what is going on,” said Burke. “When I first went I was slowly getting used to the training and then having to do media and German lessons.
“Cramming it all into one day was difficult. I learned bits (of German), as much as I could for the training and the coaches so I could understand.
“But it’s a very difficult language to learn because sometimes the language you actually learn in your lessons they don’t speak much of that.
“There’s different styles and slang. There’s different types of German as well, like Austrian German.”
Although he doesn’t regret his German excursion, Burke admitted it was a lot easier to settle into the Albion changing room without the language barrier.
“I’ve settled in really nicely and the boys are fantastic,” he said. “I feel very happy to be at this club.
“I get on with everybody really well so that’s a big bonus. And everyone’s English as well so that’s a good start!”
Apart from a 30-minute burst away at Brighton and a two-minute cameo at home to Stoke before that, Burke hasn’t been able to show off his talents in Albion colours so far.
He returned to full training last Thursday but wasn’t named in the squad for the Manchester City game and instead played 45 minutes for the under-23s on Monday night in order to get some match sharpness back.
The young winger is now desperate to break into the first team because he didn’t come back to England to sit on the bench.
“I could have been in the Champions League (with RB Leipzig) but if I am not playing, I am not really that interested,” he said. “I just want to play. I am 20 years old and still young. You could soak it in, sit on the bench and watch. But there is only so much you can do of that.
“I am just eager and I want to play, to showcase my talents. I know I can do that if given an opportunity. I didn’t really get that at RB. This is why I moved.”
