Darnell Furlong: West Brom back to business

West Brom secured promotion to the top flight on the final day of the Championship season last month, but now have just over three weeks before they're back in action for their top flight opener against Leicester.

With Albion hard at work behind the scenes to bring new faces into the club, Furlong admitted that now's the time for the side to prepare in a shortened summer break.

“The break has been very different." Furlong said.

“It’s been a lot shorter. I still managed to get away which was nice. I spent a lot of time with friends and family but now we’re back to it.

“I think we are well prepared fitness wise because we only finished three or four weeks ago, instead of the usual six or seven weeks.

“We have to put the hard miles in now again though to make sure we are ready.

“We can see a difference and I can feel a difference in the fitness levels.

Albion reported for their first pre-season training session this week, and despite heading abroad like many other players, the defender believes his teammates are close to full match fitness due to the late end to the previous campaign.

On top of that, he admitted that there's a great atmosphere amongst the squad due to the euphoria still surrounding the club following their successful Championship campaign.

“Although you’ve been running while you are off, you still aren’t at that football level of fitness, but we feel a lot closer to it and we are starting from a better base.” he said.

“There’s a nice feeling around the place because of what we achieved last season with promotion to the Premier League.

“We’ve all been looking forward to it while we’ve been on our holidays. Now it’s back to business.

“We’re going to give it everything we can this year.”

Meanwhile, West Brom goalkeeper Alex Palmer has been named PFA League Two Fans' player of the year - having spent last season on-loan at Plymouth Argyle.

The 24-year-old managed 41 appearances at Home Park, earning 15 clean sheets.