West Brom sporting director makes bold statement

Youth graduate Alex Palmer has established himself as first-choice between the sticks over the past year, while Tom Fellows has proven to be a revelation since his breakthrough campaign last term.

Twenty-one-year-old Fellows has played an instrumental role in Albion collecting three wins from their first four league games – registering three assists in the process.

Looking towards the future, academy players Deago Nelson and Evan Humphries were handed two-year deals earlier this summer, with Archie Kirton and Adriel Walker penning one-year contracts.

Nestor, who was appointed sporting director at Hawthorns last month, wants to ensure a consistent pathway from the academy to the first team.

He told the club website: “The academy is massive for us and it’s a major focus of mine going forward.

“There’s nothing better than seeing academy products flourishing and doing well in the first team, like we have here. Those players have been rewarded with long-term contracts because we want them to stay here and help us accomplish our goals.

“This off-season we signed a large number of young, developing prospects to new contracts. A lot of them are also getting frequent training with the first team.

“We’re really focused on pathways for these players to ensure that they’re getting meaningful minutes, either here or elsewhere on loan. So it is a major focus of ours, and as we build and invest into our football operations – whether that’s recruiting and data tools or medical and sports science – we want to ensure that our game model and all those investments are filtered down to our academy to keep consistency through the various age groups.”

Albion have undergone a summer of change with the likes of Cedric Kipre, Conor Townsend, Okay Yokuslu and Brandon Thomas-Asante departing The Hawthorns.

In total, Albion welcomed 11 new faces and saw another 14 head for the exit door during the summer transfer window. Wideman Mikey Johnston, who enjoyed a stellar loan spell in the West Midlands during the second half of last season, secured a permanent return from Celtic.

The arrivals of Torbjorn Heggem, Gianluca Frabotta, Ousmane Diakate, Joe Wildsmith, Callum Styles and Devante Cole were among others did business for in the summer, concluding with a loan deal for Mason Holgate.

Nestor insists the Baggies will be aiming to compete for promotion again this season and that they will do so in the most sustainable way.

“I think, with some of the reporting around potential financial restraints of the club, perhaps supporters and even other clubs, thought there might be another opportunity to come in and acquire some of our players and maybe even acquire them below market value,” he continued. “But that was never going to happen. We want to be a force in this division and always be competing for promotion.

“We feel that at this club we can do that, and we can do that in a sustainable way that doesn’t get us out of bounds from a financial perspective. We understand the value of our players, both their market value and global football, but also their intangible value to us as a club.”