West Brom Under 23s 'replicating' first team heading into new campaign
West Brom Under 23s are attempting to replicate the first team as much as they can as they head into the new Premier League 2 campaign.
The Baggies begin their new season against Newcastle United on August 8 - with manager Richard Beale targetting another successful year in charge.
Beale took over at the start of last season and guided the young Baggies to a memorable PL Cup win over Wolves at The Hawthorns.
Since then, they have added attacker Ramello Mitchell to their squad following a success trial, while integrating Josh Shaw, Reece Hall and Sammy Okoka into the team after they agreed their first professional deals at the club.
Now the aim is to keep replicating what the first team do - with Beale insisted he has a bunch of players with great talent.
He said: "As I’ve said a number of times, there’s lots of great young players at this football club. Richard Stevens [Academy Manager] is working his magic to bring them through and give them that pathway. His staff here are doing a great job at keeping that conveyor belt going.
"I think this year's crop of Under-18s has some great talent, but the key to it all is work hard, work hard, work hard. That along with your ability is going to get you somewhere in and around it and the ones who are hard enough will be the ones who stick around, as has been proven with Josh, Reece and Sammy.
"We’re trying to replicate the first team as closely as we can. The lads came in and did the same fitness tests as they did during pre-season and the boys have come back fit and strong. Our pre-season games proved to be a really good test for our players and there’s going to be healthy competition for places. I enjoy this time of season, watching players get fitter and stronger and see how far they can take themselves in order to build a platform to go off for the rest of the season.
"I can’t wait for the season to start so we can get working with this group of lads. We’re excited and there's lots at the football club to look forward to and I think it’s going to be a really good year for us this season."
