And joint-assistant head coach admits midfielder is a bit bemused by snow
KEVIN Keen has tipped Claudio Yacob to become a future Albion captain.The Argentina midfielder skippered his former club Racing Club de Avellaneda before moving to England in the summer.
And Keen believes his leadership qualities will come more to the fore at The Hawthorns the better his English gets.
“He hasn’t been happy for the last couple of days with the weather,” Steve Clarke’s joint-No.2 quipped.
“It’s 35 degrees back home and he is standing, looking out of the window and shaking his head saying ‘Kevin, what is this?’
“It’s quite unusual for March, I suppose!"
Keen added: “For me he has come into the group as the type of player that the head coach was looking for and the role he has played in the team has been very effective alongside the other midfield players who have played most of the season, Youssouf [Mulumbu] and James [Morrison].
“The three of them have been a core element of the success we’ve had this year with Claudio coming in and playing that holding role and being simple with his play but very clever with his breaking up of the opposition’s play.
“I think he’s been a great acquisition for West Brom, I really do.
“And he’s a great lad around the place, his English is coming on and his lessons are going on non-stop.
“Occasionally we hear him talk a little bit, and I think when he becomes a bit more communicative in English his role within the team will progress even more because I think having been captain of Racing Club, I think he’s got ideas and leadership qualities about him.
“I can see sometimes in training that he’s really wanting to say some things and he can’t quite communicate that at the moment.
“But he is working really hard at his English and I think within six months he will be able to get his ideas over a lot better.
“And I do think there is a possibility of a future captain there.”