Danny Wright

Wed 20 November 2019 11:48, UK

Rekeem Harper has had somewhat of a fall from grace since the end of last season with the midfielder yet to make a Championship start for West Brom under Slaven Bilic.

In fact, the 19-year-old has not played for the Baggies in the league since he came off the bench for the last six minutes of the win against Nottingham Forest on the opening day of the campaign in August.

Harper had become a mainstay of the Albion midfield in the second half of last season as between January 12 and May 5, the England Under-19 international played in 15 of West Brom’s 20 league fixtures.

Nowadays, Harper cannot even make the bench for the first-team and has had to make do with playing regularly for the Under-23s instead.

So what went wrong for Harper?

Although he was playing regularly for West Brom in the final months of Darren Moore’s leadership and Jimmy Shan’s caretaker charge, Harper did not exactly impress the majority of West Brom fans.

Usually, when a young player breaks through at The Hawthorns, they are treated with a lot of patience and admiration by the supporters. Who doesn’t love singing ‘he’s one of our own’?

But in Harper’s case, the ‘honeymoon period’ did not last that long as his performances started to come under close scrutiny amid a promotion bid that was falling apart, a change in management and speculation surrounding his future.

Harper’s contract situation did not help him out at all last season and while it is simplistic to blame that for the midfielder’s drop in form, it would be fair to assume that was one of the reasons behind it.

Despite speculation linking him with Celtic, Liverpool, Tottenham and Juventus, Harper ended up putting pen to paper on a new deal at The Hawthorns.

However there were still signs after that deal was completed that not all was right with the central midfielder as Bilic said in August, as quoted by the Birmingham Mail, that he was not happy with the player’s application in training over the summer.

Since having a chat with the teenager, Bilic admitted that things had improved, but even that has not opened up an opportunity for Harper in the first-team squad.

Harper’s cause is not helped by the fact that Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers have locked down the two central midfield spots in Bilic’s starting line-up this season with the pair starting every single Championship fixture.

However neither of them will be available on Saturday when Sheffield Wednesday travel to The Hawthorns after they both picked up a one-match suspension for their fifth yellow card of the season in the win at Hull.

It leaves Bilic with a bit of a conundrum – but it also leaves Harper with an opportunity.

Chris Brunt, Filip Krovinovic, Gareth Barry and Semi Ajayi could all play in the centre of the midfield so it’s not as though Harper is guaranteed a spot in the starting line-up.

But if Bilic decides against handing the teenager an opportunity to shine, then it could be a worrying sign that Harper might not have much of a future at West Brom as long as Bilic is in the dug-out.

In other West Brom news, the Baggies have signed a new striker to add to their Under-17s squad.