Steve Bruce: West Brom have done homework on summer signings, won’t say more to avoid ‘trouble’
West Brom manager Steve Bruce claims the club have done their “homework” on potential summer signings after their playoff hopes ended.
A stalemate against Coventry on Saturday mathematically confirmed the club have nothing left to play for this season, and the Baggies boss admitted there was “a big job to be done” to improve for next season.
There will not necessarily be cash to splash so the ex-Newcastle boss says the list of available free transfers have been the focus of the research ahead of what promises to be an important offseason.
The manager said after the 0-0 draw, via the Birmingham Mail: “We’ve been busy but, you know, every club will have been busy, I would have thought, if you’re doing your job right, then you never stand still, do you?
“I’m sure we’re all looking at the list of Bosman, for example, who’s out of contract, so we’ve done a bit of homework, and I’m going to say no more unless I get into trouble.”
Must do better
The lowest league finish for the club in two decades will necessarily require a fairly major overhaul.
Having become accustomed to being a yo-yo club if they fell out of the Premier League, a mid-table Championship position is a sign of a significant drop in standards.
While changing managers mid-season in the top flight hasn’t been rare, performing badly enough to go through that in the second tier is new.
The transfer story at the Hawthorns of late, usually a source of great excitement at any club, hasn’t been glowing.
The decent if not world-beating performances from free transfer Andy Carroll is probably the highlight of the recent business.
That move was only necessary when January headliner Daryl Dike was knocked out with an injury that ultimately limited his involvement to less than 90 minutes in a Baggies shirt.
And the news, confirmed yesterday by Bruce, that Jayson Molumby’s loan move has become permanent to the tune of nearly £1million has hardly lit up the imagination of the supporters.
Bruce looks to be hoping to gather anybody he can cheaply get is hands on for a pre-season audition, but whether that yields a squad capable of challenging for promotion next year will be the big question for the next few months.
In other West Brom news, one first-team player had to issue an apology after what he did during a game.
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