A ride with the chairman and £50k West Brom deal for Rob Davies
This summer will mark two decades since West Brom stumped up £50,000 to snap up one of the brightest young talents in Welsh football.
Rob Davies, now 36 and retired from football, was a young central midfielder who had been making noises as a youngster who came through the academy at then League One club Wrexham.
The midfielder, who hailed from Tywyn in Mid Wales, had attracted the attention of a number of clubs, due to a string of displays on Sky Sports in the Victory Shield
Manchester City, Wolves and Aston Villa, were interested in signing the youngster but his end destination was to be West Brom, after he starred for Wrexham under 16s in an 8-1 mauling of the Baggies at the club's training ground.
Eventually, Albion would have to pay Wrexham a total of £50,000 plus add ons for the 16-year-old Davies following a decision at an FA tribunal, a sizeable fee back in 2003.
Davies, whose involvement in football these days involves advising his local club Tywyn, explains his journey from sleepy Mid Wales to professional football and his post Baggies career, in the latest guest episode of the Baggies Broadcast, set to be released on Wednesday.
And in the podcast, Davies reveals how one of his first memories at Albion involves the then West Brom owner Jeremy Peace asking him how much he thinks he's worth, on the drive home from a tribunal in Crewe.
