West Brom set for tight summer double-header to utilise squad and assess youngsters
Albion have confirmed a pre-season friendly at League One outfit Blues – to take place less than 24 hours after a trip to Cambridge United.
Carlos Corberan takes his side to St Andrew's for a 3pm kick-off on Saturday, August 3, one weekend before the start of the Championship campaign.
The two friendlies are the first to be revealed by the club this summer and look set to be the final two played before the return of competitive action.
Blues, now managed by new boss Chris Davies who was previously assistant at Tottenham, were relegated from the Championship last season. Cambridge, who host the Baggies at 7.45pm the night before, survived relegation from the third tier to finish 18th.
The back-to-back warm-up clashes is a theme of the head coach's previous summer at the helm a year ago when the Baggies faced Forest Green Rovers and Bolton Wanderers, both away, inside 24 hours on the eve of the league season.
The squad was split on that occasion with a significant chunk of the side that lost to Forest Green 2-0 made up of players from Albion's under-21s. Under-21 boss Richard Beale was also in attendance in the dugout.
The following day, Corberan's senior Baggies were beaten 4-3 by a last-minute strike at Bolton.
Albion did not play any home friendlies at The Hawthorns last summer. They kicked off the pre-season schedule with a couple of behind-closed-doors warm-up fixtures at the training ground.
Indeed a clash against Hertha Berlin in the summer of 2022, where Daryl Dike scored a winner, is the sole friendly Albion have played at their home stadium since 2019.
More friendlies are expected to be confirmed.
Albion's first-team squad returns to commence pre-season training on Thursday, June 27, the day after fixtures for the new 2024/25 campaign are confirmed and released.
