BBC Sport pundit slams ‘anonymous’ West Brom star on international duty
West Brom’s appointment of Ryan Mason should open the door for several of the Baggies’ young stars to develop and progress as players.
The 33-year-old had been heavily involved in the academy coaching setup at Tottenham for several years, before taking on multiple roles within the first-team staff in recent seasons.
Mason has a reputation for being fantastic when working with up-and-coming talents, which should make him the perfect candidate to help some of West Brom’s young stars take the next step in their development.
The likes of Tom Fellows and Caleb Taylor have huge futures ahead of them, and it will be down to Mason to ensure their potential is maximised in the near future.
Isaac Price has been criticised for his Northern Ireland display
One man who is tipped to have a big future at The Hawthorns is Isaac Price. The midfielder joined the West Midlands outfit from Standard Liege back in January, and has already become a mainstay in the first team since his move.
The 21-year-old’s season has been prolonged for another couple of weeks, as he is away on international duty with Northern Ireland.
Price played all 90 minutes of Michael O’Neill’s side’s 2-1 defeat to Denmark on Saturday (7 June). He then scored a 36th-minute opener in his team’s clash with Iceland in Belfast on Tuesday (10 June) night, only to then receive strong criticism for his performance.
Former Northern Ireland and Motherwell defender Stephen Craigan was part of BBC NI’s coverage of the game (10 June – 20:26pm), and he felt Price could have had more of an influence on proceedings.
“Isaac Price has been anonymous so far, but that’s a lovely finish,” Craigan said. “He uses the defender to shield the ball from the goalkeeper and just uses his body to curl into the corner.”
Price will be a huge player for West Brom under Mason
Price has only been with West Brom for a matter of months, but he has already done enough to outline himself as someone who should be at the forefront of Mason’s plans.
The Baggies only paid £2.5million for the former Everton academy man, but he has displayed the kind of creativity and versatility that make it easy to see why there are such high expectations for him within the game.
He was one of the most consistent performers under Tony Mowbray in the latter stages of the season, and that will be expected to continue under Mason, especially if Fellows departs, as that could see Price in line for a bigger role.