[ad_pod ]
West Brom’s academy has produced some fabulous young talents down the years, bringing through the likes of Saido Berahino, Izzy Brown and Kemar Roofe.
All of the above eventually went onto leave the club and are now finding their feet elsewhere.
There are still some incredibly promising players coming through though, after the likes of Finn Azaz, Jamie Soule, Rayhaan Tulloch and Morgan Rogers all helped the club reach the FA Youth Cup semi-finals last year.
There were also a number of breakthroughs at first-team level with Rekeem Harper, Sam Field and Kyle Edwards the main youngsters to gain first-team minutes.
However, after the club lost their academy manager Mark Harrison to Aston Villa, there is a reason to suggest Albion could be far worse without him, especially after helping to bring through some of the players above.
Darren Moore was a huge help in boosting the minutes he gave to players under the age of 21 in his first season in permanent charge at Albion.
In terms of academy products, he afforded opportunities to six players who would go onto play 3,762 minutes as a collective throughout 2018/19.
The brunt of that was made up by Harper who completed 1,743 minutes.
However, how will Bilic fare with Albion’s academy now he’s arrived?
The stats from his first season in charge of West Ham during the 2015/16 campaign show there are both positives and negatives.
Although he gave minutes to six more academy graduates than Moore did last term, something that can be seen as a positive, they only played 2,156 minutes.
Meanwhile, only 22 starts were given to academy players under the age of 21 during the Croatian’s opening year at the Irons.
In that sense, he is behind Moore and will have work to do if he’s to better the former Baggies manager.
Watch fans explain why the Football League is better than the Premier League in the video below…
The 45-year-old may have been an inexperienced coach at senior level when he was given the Albion job, but if there was one positive from his reign it was the sheer number of minutes he gave to those coming through the ranks.
In comparison, Bilic’s first term at West Ham suggests that he needs to be far more consistent in who he gives chances to.
Bringing through young players has been a key philosophy at West Brom, something that was evident in giving Moore the role in the first place.
It would be wrong to suggest it’ll be hindered by the appointment of the ex-Croatia boss, but he will certainly have to put a greater focus on younger players as he gets to work at the Hawthorns.
