West Brom future is rosy: Three England boys

Three Albion teenagers have been called up by England for a four-day training camp with the under-16s at St George's Park.

Two of them are defenders Tom Solanke, 15, and Remari Shaun Williams, 14, while the third is striker Rayhaan Tulloch, 15.

Over the past few years the Baggies academy has been one of the best in the country at producing attacking players.

Exciting names off the production line include current first-team striker Saido Berahino, Chelsea starlet Isaiah Brown, and League Two player of the Year Kemar Roofe.

Jonathan Leko and Tyler Roberts are two teenage wingers who made their Premier League debuts for Albion towards the end of last season and both have signed professional contracts with the club.

But there has been a dearth of defenders coming through the ranks.

Because of that the academy recently implemented a position-specific training programme that groups each separate position together for a couple of sessions a week.

Centre-backs train with centre-backs while strikers train with strikers.

Harrison hoped it would improve the academy in other areas of the pitch, and it appears to be working.

"We're now getting more recognition at England youth level for some of our defenders," he said.

"At least that's telling us that the programmes are working.

"For the first time in the last two years we've had England youth internationals that are defenders.

"Previous to that it was always the players like Saido and Jon.

"We've got Tom Solanke and Kane Wilson, they're both defenders that have been called up recently.

"Remari Williams is another defender.

"For the first six or seven years we had no defenders called up for England and now we've had three, so hopefully we're getting a nice balance now."

Tulloch, Solanke and Williams are all heading to Burton on Thursday, July 21.

They go to St George's Park following in the footsteps of Berahino and Leko.

"It's fantastic they have been given this opportunity to be a part of the England development programme," said Harrison.

"They will be coached on the pitch but they will also attend workshops where they are educated in what is expected of an England player.

"It's also an opportunity for the coaches to observe the players and assess their mental and physical strengths.

"It's more recognition of the fantastic work that is done by the staff at our academy.

"We were well represented across the nations at the last Victory Shield and we are now consistently getting three or four boys in and around the England set-up at that age."