West Brom to take three academy aces on pre-season Portugal tour
Steve Bruce is set to take three of the best young talents at West Brom with him and the senior team on their pre-season tour, according to Birmingham Live.
The Baggies are set to jet off to Portugal to begin their preparations for the 2022-23 Championship season on Sunday (26 June) before returning to British shores for a hectic schedule of friendlies ahead of their season opener against Middlesbrough.
Along with new signings Jed Wallace and John Swift and the rest of the senior squad, Bruce has called upon Zac Ashworth, Caleb Taylor and Ethan Ingram to make up the numbers on the plane.
The former duo made their Championship debuts last season while Ingram is waiting for that chance and the trio will also be joined by 20-year-old Quevin Castro who made two appearances in the second tier in 2021-22.
That quartet were key players in the Albion Under-23s side that went on to win the Premier League Cup at the expense of Midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Future
This is exactly the kind of move we need to start making if we want to make a player of any of our starlets currently plugging away in the academy.
There is often too much emphasis put on signing players to replace those leaving the club but very rarely in the current climate of football do you see a club put their faith in an academy graduate to step up when it matters.
We are looking to sell Cedric Kipre in defence and some clubs would decide to pursue a new signing to find his replacement but Taylor has shown his ability in the past and we could benefit greatly by trusting him.
We saw just last season how Taylor Gardner-Hickman burst into the first team and become arguably our best player towards the back end of the campaign.
Who is to say that Taylor, Ingram, Castro or Ashworth can’t go on to have that same impact and after that they will either go on to become club icons for us or make us a handy profit if another club tries to buy them.
In other West Brom news, Carlton Palmer has predicted the one position where Bruce will delve into the transfer market to sort out once and for all.
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