West Brom sign teenage keeper Ben Pierce on two-year deal

The teenager, who has been a youth team player at Manchester United, Manchester City, and Everton, has been signed this summer on a two-year professional deal.

He was due to join the likes of Alex Palmer, Jasko Keranovic, Ethan Ross, and Brad House in the hunt for the third-choice spot behind Ben Foster and Boaz Myhill.

But unfortunately, he will have to wait for his chance after fracturing the fifth metatarsal in his right foot in one of his first Albion training sessions.

“Training was great and I felt really good,” said the Mancunian teenager. “But I ended up going to save a shot and rolling my ankle. The X rays showed this slight fracture so it wasn’t ideal.

“I was chatting to (academy goalkeeper coach) Mark Naylor afterwards about how disappointed I was with me being at a new club.

"But he said ‘don’t worry about that – let’s just focus on getting you fit’ and that was very reassuring.

“Hopefully it won’t be too long. I can get fit just after the start of the season ready to compete for the under-23s. This is only a slight setback. I know myself I can come back stronger and better.”

Pierce has been a youth team player at Manchester United, Manchester City, and Everton, where he has just finished a two-year scholarship, but he joins a fierce battle in the Albion academy for the third-choice keeping spot.

This summer the academy culled 14 players in an effort to slim-line the playing staff and give space to a promising batch of under-16s coming through.

However, even though 22-year-old keeper Jack Rose was one of those released, the majority of young glove-men were kept on.

First-team goalkeeping coach Gould has high hopes for the youngsters at the club, but he wants to get as many of them out on loan as possible next season.

And he’s told them to look no further than Baggies No.1 Ben Foster for the benefit of loan deals at other clubs.

When he was at Stoke, Foster had loan spells at Bristol City, Tiverton Town, Stafford Rangers, Kidderminster Harriers, and Wrexham.

But it was his hugely successful seasons on loan at Watford when he was on Manchester United's books that really put his name on the map.

“We have a good crew,” said Gould. “It’s just vitally important we give them match experience and loans away from West Brom like Ben had in his career.

“We need to give them that mental edge as quick as possible. Even if loans stress them out, they need to understand what the hard end of goalkeeping is all about.

“The key performance indicator is how you compete in first-team football.”

Gould will be working with loan manager Darren Moore in the coming weeks in order to find clubs for his young keepers. But until then, he’s told them to keep a beady eye on Foster in pre-season.

“The youngsters that we have at the club are able to watch Ben and the way he trains and his approach to the professional game,” said Gould. “That helps more than he realises. I just hope we can start developing what youngsters we have.”

Pierce agrees with his new coach, saying: “I couldn’t think of a better keeper to look up to than Ben Foster.

“I have always had English keepers as my role models – I’m thinking of Joe Hart, David Seaman and Foster.

“The fact that I now have the opportunity to work at a club where one of them is the first team keeper is brilliant for me.

"He’s played at top, top clubs, played for England - I couldn’t think of a better keeper as a role model.”

Although Pierce's training this summer was cut short by injury, Gould was pleased with what he saw in the limited time he was playing.

“He trained with the first team, I was very impressed with him, and so were Ben and Bo," he said. "He’s got good attributes and a great attitude.

“This injury is just one of those things that can happen. But we can use the time valuably – we’ll get him on a schedule to build his upper body strength which will be of value to him while the foot heals.”