West Bromwich Albion season objectives

A priority is to keep Carlos Corberan…

Transcript

00:00And on to West Bromwich Albion, in terms of their objectives, obviously so close to a

00:06play-off push again, lost two eventual winners in Southampton. I mean, we've discussed how

00:11important Carlos Corberán is as well, that they ensure he's their boss going into this

00:16new campaign as well. What are the sort of objectives for Baggies that they'll surely

00:20be looking to make another play-off push or even better this season?

00:24Yeah, I think they'd like to get a bit closer to the automatic promotion spots, but the

00:29issue is they're going to lose a number of key players with their contracts expiring.

00:33Okaya Kuzlu as well, he's not expiring, but it's in a year's time and there's talks over

00:38a move back to Turkey. He's absolutely vital in that central defensive midfield role, can

00:42drop into centre back when needed out of possession and even in possession playing out from the

00:46back, he's likely to go. Cedric Kipray as well, one of the best players last season

00:52for West Brom and in the championship altogether, hardly missed a minute, so crucial to so many

00:56of their wins and he's probably going as well because his contract's up and no agreement

01:01has been reached. Losing those kind of players and they haven't got the funds crucially to

01:05bring in those that can replace them already be at that level. Those two I've mentioned

01:10weren't brought in for big transfer fees at all, if anything they were free I believe,

01:14so it's going to be difficult to try and replicate that. We know how competitive the market is,

01:19so many clubs at the moment struggling to meet all of the financial fair play and sustainability

01:24regulations, so it is going to be tough. I think the play-offs is probably a more realistic

01:29target with that in mind. They've still got a decent squad, they can't go out and splash

01:33the cash like some teams can.

01:35Yeah, and obviously the championship is probably one of the hardest divisions to predict, it

01:40can go any way before a ball's kicked. Is Cor Brown the key for West Brom to ensure

01:46that they've got him at the helm and that can be a sort of base to work on and obviously

01:50he touched that they might lose some key players?

01:53I think so, yeah, he's already displayed that he can get the most out of a bad situation

01:58in terms of not having that money to spend. I don't think there's even really been a transfer

02:02fee spent whatsoever since he took over, just shows the position West Brom have been in.

02:07Thankfully now with Shilan Patel, the new Florida-based businessman at the helm in terms

02:12of the ownership, there'll be a bit more investment, he's written off some of the debts that were

02:16under the previous ownership, so that's a step in the right direction, but still it's

02:19these regulations I mentioned, they've got to stay on the right lines of things for profits

02:23and losses and at the moment they can't make those investments. So Cor Brown, someone who

02:27can get the most out of the cheapest squads is very important. He did it at Huddersfield,

02:32got them to the playoff final, obviously missed out in the first season at West Brom just

02:36about, but then got them to the playoff semi-finals in the 23-24 season. If they can do that again

02:42I think it'll be a big success and Cor Brown will be very key to that.