Boss impressed by Albion's Under-21 aces
STEVE Clarke is expecting to be bombarded by requests from Championship clubs to loan Albion’s young guns.The Baggies boss watched the likes of Scott Allan, George Thorne, Chris Wood, Saido Berahino, James Hurst and Sam Mantom convincingly beat Everton 3-1 in their Barclays Under-21 Premier League season-opener on Sunday.
And he was impressed by what he saw from the club’s Academy products over the course of pre-season.
“There was a possibility of Scott going on loan this week but it didn’t happen for whatever reason,” said Clarke.
“But, if you’d watched our Under-21s game against Everton at the weekend, I think every club in the Championship would have tried to take every player.
“The young boys played ever so well, they were terrific.
“I had a lot of them working with me in pre-season."
And, having also enjoyed his first win as Baggies boss thanks to Saturday's 3-0 win over Liverpool, he added: “It was a great weekend for me.
“I had a good day on Saturday, I came in here on Sunday, did a little bit of training and wandered down to watch the Under-21s.
“I think I felt even better on Sunday night after watching the young boys.
“We have a lot of good young boys here and I’m sure there will be many Championship clubs who will come in and try to take a number off us this season.
“It’s up to us to judge when they go out and who they go to.
“We try and help their development and their development has to help us.
“If it’s good for the boy, it’s good for West Bromwich Albion, and it’s good for the club he’s going to, then we’ll try and do it.
“But we won’t put them all out at the same time.”