Valerien Ismael asks for patience over West Brom youngster Reyes Cleary
West Brom manager Valerien Ismael has hinted that Reyes Cleary is edging closer to an opportunity in the first team.
The 17-year-old has caught the eye in Albion’s academy this season for both the Under-23s and Under-18s, leading to calls for him to feature in the Championship.
The club are in talks with Cleary about his first professional contract amid interest from Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Crystal Palace [Daily Mail].
Speaking to the Express & Star, Ismael gave an update on the teenage striker’s development.
“He (Cleary) has been training with the first-team now for a few weeks,” he said. “We needed to wait for the right time for him. But he has trained well.
“To improve he needs to get that intensity. Our games and the under-23 games are completely different in their intensity.
“Even, though, the under-23s try and play the same as the first-team with the same high press, the intensity in the first-team is completely different because it is throughout the 90 minutes.
“But otherwise it is a normal process, it is a normal situation with him. He is among the pool of players that we think in the future can be part of the first-team.
“I think Taylor (Gardner-Hickman) is the first-step in that direction. And now Reyes is part of the pool.”
Matter of time
The hype is growing around Cleary and it is easy to see why when you look at the numbers he has recorded in youth football this season.
For West Brom’s Under-18s he has scored 10 goals in six appearances, while he has netted seven goals in nine matches for the Under-23s. He is only 17 years old.
Cleary struck a hattrick as the Under-23s beat Middlesbrough 3-2 last week (6 December).
A Covid outbreak in the senior team then led to Cleary being included in a matchday squad for the first time against Reading on Saturday (11 December).
But it only seems a matter of time before he becomes a regular on the bench and is handed his first team debut.
Albion Under-18 coach Peter Gilbert says Cleary is “a powerful forward player with an eye for goal and is an excellent finisher”.
The Baggies will definitely hope to tie the teenager down to a professional contract as soon as possible after his 18th birthday.
In other West Brom news, Albion must do everything they can to keep hold of this “fantastic” player in January.
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