By Steve Madeley 2h ago 4
The jubilant scenes in the East Stand car park already feel like a lifetime ago.
In fact, less than seven weeks have passed since Darnell Furlong carried a lit flare into an empty Hawthorns, Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana danced a jig and Jake Livermore struggled to contain his emotion as West Bromwich Albion returned to the Premier League.
But football moves on quickly and the reality of top-flight life will soon hit Albion once more like a sledgehammer as they begin the new season with their recruitment for it incomplete.
The feelgood factor has not dissipated entirely and the permanent signing of Diangana from West Ham United after last season’s impressive loan spell has certainly put a spring in the step of the supporters.
Yet many of them have spent enough time watching their club in the Premier League in the past two decades to be painfully aware of the challenge that awaits between Sunday’s home match against Leicester City and the trip to Leeds United on May 23, 2021.
Only a handful of players remain from the club’s last stint among the elite, so head coach Slaven Bilic will tackle the new campaign with a group who, in the main, have not been scarred by, nor tested in, the top flight.
He will do so, too, with transfer business still very much in progress and in the knowledge he is unlikely to get reinforcements in all the areas he would like to strengthen over the line before the October deadline.
In short, the mission awaiting Bilic and his team is seriously difficult.
Finishing fourth-bottom will represent success, so Albion fans who became used to seeing their team dominating games and winning many more than they lost during two seasons back in the Championship must now steel themselves for something very different.
For much of last season, promotion felt like a potential cherry on the cake of a year in which those supporters fell back in love with their club. After lockdown and the impact of COVID-19, it became a financial imperative.
But it was always likely to leave West Brom turning up armed with catapults at Premier League gunfights.
With an unwillingness or inability from owner Guochuan Lai to invest personal funds, a reluctance from the UK-based hierarchy to spend hugely in uncertain financial times and a lack of clarity on when turnstile and commercial income might return to normal, Albion’s playing budget is among the smallest in the division.
So they will begin the season, and probably end the summer transfer window, without filling some of the holes in their squad.
The marquee signing of this brief close-season has undoubtedly been Diangana — a player identified by newly-hired Bilic last summer as a prime loan target and a one who he made a priority this summer when noises emerged that parent club West Ham needed to raise cash.
There were debates behind the scenes about whether to press ahead with a permanent transfer as a long-term investment or push for a second season on loan to save the available funds for other positions but what was never in dispute was the potential impact of Diangana both on the pitch and on the mood of fans and team-mates alike.
The commitment to an £18 million deal does, however, leave Albion needing to be creative to achieve their other priorities. Chief among them is recruiting a goalscorer to lead their attack in the top division.
Karlan Grant (pictured above), who scored 19 Championship goals for Huddersfield Town last season, remains their main target after they concluded they could not compete with wealthier clubs for Ollie Watkins, who got a division-leading 26 for play-off finalists Brentford.
An agreement was close before the signing of Diangana and discussions remain ongoing but West Brom will need to get creative with staggered payments, possibly a loan with future obligations or perhaps a hefty sell-on clause to resurrect a deal. It appears inconceivable they will end the window without adding a striker to their ranks, given their struggles to find a regular goalscorer even in a free-flowing Championship team last season.
It still seems likely Filip Krovinovic will be back, probably initially on loan again, although negotiations with parent club Benfica are currently snagged on the terms of any future obligation to buy the Croatian midfielder.
Elsewhere, it is likely Bilic will have to accept the limitations of his budget and make the best of what he has.
He would have liked a goalkeeper with genuine star quality but has had to settle for Brighton & Hove Albion No 2 David Button, a man with vast experience but who has never nailed down a regular Premier League place, meaning Sam Johnstone is likely to be thrown into the deep end.
He would also have liked a left-back with the talent and power of Kieran Gibbs but with a less-worrying injury record. With Albion unable to offload the former England international, Bilic will need to cross his fingers that Gibbs can stay fit but be prepared to get the most from Premier League rookies Conor Townsend and Dara O’Shea as potential understudies with plenty of work ahead.
At centre-back, an experienced Premier League campaigner was desirable, and there were discussions about Brighton’s Shane Duffy before he joined Celtic, but Cedric Kipre, the former Wigan Athletic man, now seems likely to be the only defensive arrival. That means Kipre and Semi Ajayi, another Premier League newbie, must combine with Ahmed Hegazi and Kyle Bartley, two more-experienced players who have been in the division before with mixed results, to the best possible effect.
Bilic looks set to go into the season without a specialist holding midfielder. That means Livermore, Romaine Sawyers and potentially Krovinovic will need tactical discipline and intelligence to offer protection to their defenders.
It is not perfect but it is where Albion find themselves. After a season of exceeding expectations in the Championship, they have earned the right to test themselves in a less forgiving league.
