West Brom confirm first pre-season friendly to take place next week
West Brom have confirmed they will play their first pre-season friendly of the summer next week.
It remains to be seen who they will be playing against but a new statement on their official website says that Slaven Bilic’s squad will travel to St George’s Park in Staffordshire on Monday ahead of a five-night stay.
St George’s Park, the home of the England national team, boasts 13 outdoor pitches and a full-size indoor 3G pitch for West Brom to get themselves prepared for life back in the Premier League on.
Albion’s statement goes on to say that the Baggies will be hosting their “first friendly of pre-season” at the Staffordshire training base.
Luke Dowling does not say who the team will be against but by the sounds of it, Bilic’s side will be playing against a fellow British club.
He said: “The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic means most, if not all, Premier League clubs will prepare for the new season in the United Kingdom.”
St George’s Park is a world-class facility that will really help West Brom get into gear before the start of the new Premier League season next month.
It will also help to motivate some of the younger English players, who will one day aspire to play for the Three Lions and get to impress Gareth Southgate on the Wembley replica pitch at the training base.
West Brom have been all over the world to prepare for seasons in the past few years with trips to Austria, Spain, the USA, China and Hong Kong being among some of the countries they’ve visited.
However, with the world a different place to what it was then, restricted travel means that a short journey up to Staffordshire is probably as far as Bilic’s men will go.
We reckon that the pre-season game will be against a local side who West Brom are not going to play in the Premier League next season.
As St George’s Park is also used by Burton Albion, they are one possibility while Nottingham Forest, Derby, Stoke and Port Vale are not a million miles away either.
In other West Brom news, Baggies fans have been trolling Brighton’s Twitter account for one of their tweets.
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