Kevin Phillips: West Brom and other clubs are helpless to stop young talents joining big clubs
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips has insisted that West Brom are currently helpless after losing numerous academy players to bigger clubs.
The ex-Baggies talisman admitted that until the powers above come in to help clubs keep their young talents, it will continue to happen.
Ron Gourlay spoke out this week and admitted that he wants to prevent this from happening so often at The Hawthorns.
“It’s such a difficult one,” he exclusively told West Brom News.
“There are loads of variations why the players get their heads turned by big clubs promising this and that, they see the bright lights at the big clubs.
“These clubs can’t guarantee minutes so they want to go somewhere else and take the money, it’s really, really difficult. Until the powers that be come together and stop taking them at an age, then it is always going to happen, which is a shame.
“We’ve seen loads of young kids’ careers not take because they’ve had their heads turned and never get an opportunity.”
This has happened far too often with Premier League clubs simply taking advantage after relegation to the Championship.
Aston Villa and Chelsea are two of the clubs who have signed young players from the Baggies in recent months, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
The next in line is Reyes Cleary, with the big striker still not signing a new contract to secure his future with the club.
Should that end in a move away, Gourlay will have failed and will have more questions to answer thrown his way.
In other West Brom news, Steve Bruce has held talks over new Baggies signing in the past month with work permit update shared
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