West Brom starlet Reyes Cleary starts for Under-21s after first team tease
Reyes Cleary looks likely not to feature for the senior West Brom team as he starts for the Under-21s in Premier League 2 against Newcastle.
The opening game of the highest form of academy football saw the young Baggies include the teenager who had been released but recently put pen to paper on a new year deal out of the blue.
Earlier on Monday (8 August), Cleary had posted an Instagram story that got fans talking that he could be involved in Steve Bruce’s side for the Championship encounter with Watford at The Hawthorns.
But the PL2 contest is scheduled for just three hours before the senior team are due to play and the West Brom Twitter account announced the team with Cleary leading the line.
Fellow starlets Ethan Ingram and Zak Ashworth were also included in the XI as were exciting attackers Modou Faal and Tom Fellows.
Fitness boost
Cleary may have been earmarked for a senior inclusion if American international Daryl Dike and Karlan Grant were both ruled out through injury but this indicates good news for Steve Bruce.
To allow the teenager to play for the Under-21s must mean that at least one of them will be good to start when the Hornets visit The Hawthorns this evening.
Dike is the most critical of the two having a much more prominent physical presence to lead the line and once he is up and running, it will be difficult for anyone to stop him.
Grant may have been last season’s top scorer but Bruce would prefer to have him unavailable of the duo but both are preferred to Cleary which will be why he is involved for the youth side.
He enjoyed a sensational season for the Under-21s and the Under-18s last season so if he can keep that going this time around, it won’t be long before he is getting the senior game time he deserves.
In other West Brom news, Bruce is going to let this outcast Baggies player try to find himself a new club over the summer.
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