‘Great experience’ – West Brom youngster excited about ‘massive opportunity’
West Brom full-back George Harmon said that their Papa John’s Trophy tie with Exeter City represents a “massive opportunity” for the club’s young players.
The Baggies under-21s side face Matt Taylor’s team at St James Park on Tuesday, knowing that they need a point to progress to round two.
With the trophy providing the club’s young players with the opportunity to play senior football, Harmon said the tournament represented a “great experience”.
“We’ve got a massive opportunity on Tuesday and we go into the game in a confident mood,” Harmon told West Brom’s official website.
“It’s men’s football at the end of the day and eventually we all want to be playing in it so it’ll be great experience for us. You’ve got to perform in these games, but I think a lot of the lads have already done that in previous games.”
Unfortunately, academy football rarely offers a real insight into how a younger player will adapt to the senior game, which makes these sort of matches all the more important.
The Baggies are currently fifth in PL2 Division 2, and in addition to Harmon there are a number of young players that Slaven Bilic will want to have a look at.
With the senior team struggling and Bilic understood to be frustrated with some of the club’s transfer dealings, finding an internal solution would prove a real bonus.
How applicable a match against Exeter, who are currently fourth in League Two, is in terms of projecting a player’s potential remains to be seen, but nonetheless this tournament is a valuable way to assess academy prospects.
With both Kieran Gibbs and Conor Townsend yet to fully convince Bilic, Harmon will have an eye on first team opportunities, and is right to say that this represents a big opportunity.
In other West Brom news, View: Excellent v Spurs – 25y/o fast becoming most important West Brom player