West Brom defender fired up for promotion bid but insists more signings required

Albion suffered play-off semi-final heartbreak against Southampton last season before a period of change earlier this summer.

Seven senior players departed the club at the end of their contracts, while Alex Mowatt and Kyle Bartley penned new deals.

Cedric Kipre was offered a new deal but looks set to move on, while Okay Yokuslu is strongly linked with a move away from the club.

Albion have added three new signings in the form of Ousmane Diakite, Torbjorn Heggem and goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith.

Furlong has insisted that the Baggies do need more new faces through the door, but added that the target of promotion remains the same.

He said: “It is the same target, we want to go for the highest point possible, whether that is top two or play-offs as a minimum.

“I think, if we’re speaking honestly as a group, we do need more players, we need to sign a few more.

“We’ve got a lot of young lads who have not played yet, but they will play in the future. They are beginning their careers so we need a few more players in.

“The main bulk of the core players we have here have been promoted before, and the target will be the same again.”

Albion went into last season with low expectations after finishing 10th and ninth in the previous two campaigns.

However, in his first full season in charge of the club Carlos Corberan helped Albion reach the play-offs, after occupying fifth position for large parts of the campaign.

The season ultimately ended in play-off defeat, something Furlong admitted still hurts as Albion ramp up preparations ahead of their Championship opener with QPR on August 10.

Expectations among the fan base have increased again and Furlong believes Albion are well prepared to deal with that and mount another promotion push.

“It still hurts (the play-off defeat), admitted Furlong. “It is gutting that we are not training looking forward to Premier League football.

“It happens in football, though. We had a great season to finish where we did, we wanted to be in the play-offs. “In my opinion we came up against the best team in the league, they were the ones you wanted to avoid.

“To do it twice is a big ask, we did believe in it, we just knew the challenge would be very high.

“We’re well prepared for it (promotion). We’ve got players in the squad who have been promoted and relegated, and know how it feels to miss out.”

Furlong and his Albion team-mates have been preparing for the new campaign at England’s St George’s Park training base.

It is the second successive summer Corberan has opted to take his charges to the Burton-based facility, and Furlong believes the facilities available to Albion are among the best in the world.

“It is the third time I’ve been here since I joined, and the facilities are crazy,” added the defender.

“Our base has good facilities but this is next level, it is one of the best in the world, and it is nice to get away from the training ground.”