Blog: The real football is back for West Brom

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone and prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, the real football's back, writes West Brom blogger Warren Stephens.

Swathes of pundits and reporters alike have cast their tediously murky predictions for the Baggies, but now the time for talking is over and the need for action is upon us.

The question is: Are Albion ready? The departures of Billy Jones, Steven Reid, Diego Lugano, Liam Ridgewell, Goran Popov, Zoltan Gera, Scott Sinclair, Morgan Amalfitano, Matej Vydra and Thievy Bifouma earlier in the summer left Albion with huge voids to fill.

We were left with no full-backs, a shortage of strikers, a vacancy at centre-back and a disturbing lack of pace and dynamism in wide and offensive areas.

Five of those aforementioned departees were loan players, three were comfortably over 30.

Such an historical reliance on the loan market and failure to strengthen positions of weakness in previous summers was clearly attributable to the quandary in which we found ourselves. So how well have we done replacing them?

I must admit that when Chairman Jeremy Peace appointed Alan Irvine as head coach, I feared it would be indicative of an underwhelming theme that would inevitable spread to our player recruitment policy.

What's actually transpired since has probably startled even the most cynical Baggie. Craig Gardner, Joleon Lescott, Chris Baird, Sebastien Pocognoli, Brown Ideye and Andre Wisdom were recruited before the end of July.

Such a pro-active approach is alien to most Baggies, used to a lengthy ordeal in front of Sky Sports News on transfer deadline day.

But certainly a welcome change to that would suggest new technical director Terry Burton has already yielded some positive influence. Cristian Gamboa and Jason Davidson have since followed.

Of those eight recruits, only three can point to having extensive experience of playing in the Premier League.

In that sense, there's an element of almost unavoidable risk involved, a risk upon which Albion's Premier League future probably hinges.

However, it's difficult to argue against the majority of those acquisitions being an improvemen or, at the very least, a potential improvement, on those they have replaced.

Ridgewell's shortfalls were obvious to many and Popov's contribution last season was negligible, to the point where merely being available for selection should render Pocognoli and Davidson as preferable options.

The former's CV – an established Belgian international who has just completed a steady season in the Bundesliga – would seem to strongly support that.

Lugano's limitations were so evident that Gus Poyet remarked during the summer that Uruguay set their whole team up to compensate for them.

His departure and Lescott's arrival is clearly a significant upgrade. It may also help bring the best out of the ever-reliable Gareth McAuley and Jonas Olsson.

Gera was a fantastic servant for Albion and not short of talent, but given his much- documented injury problems, bringing in Gardner has to be seen as an incremental gain.

His directness and willingness to shoot from distance may also bring an urgency to Albion's build-up play, which was so lethargic for much of last season.

Brown Ideye arrives with the baggage of being the club's record signing, let's hope he proves to be more Willie Johnstone than Martin Albrechtsen.

Is he worth £10m? I don't think any of us really know, but his goal-scoring record for Dynamo Kiev would imply he is likely to offer more than Nicolas Anelka and Vydra eventually did.

Wisdom and Baird bring character and depth to the back four, but the one signing I'm most excited by is Gamboa, whose pace brings a dynamic Albion have been desperately lacking.

An inability to press teams or counter effectively left us in a near-state of paralysis for much of last season. His marauding runs down the right hand side and recovery speed, together with

Ideye's athleticism, could breathe life into this Albion side. However, two Usain Bolts don't make a relay team.

Having not yet replaced Amalfitano and Sinclair, it's clear Albion need to supplement our one-paced midfield with a bit of width and flamboyance.

The rejuvenated Graham Dorrans, James Morrison and Stephane Sessegnon have all played their best football for Albion in an advanced central midfield role, the same one that Gardner cites as his most natural position.

That balance needs redressing but, unfortunately, that's not likely to happen before tomorrow's curtain-raiser against Sunderland.

Permit problems have also hampered the arrivals of Gamboa and Ideye and injuries to Lescott, Morrison and McAuley haven't helped.

In much the same vain as last season, there's a risk that we're playing catch-up and that Irvine could subsequently come under scrutiny from the wider media before he's been given an opportunity to work with all of his best players.

The difference being, perhaps, that the club is slightly less culpable in terms of under-preparation than it was twelve months ago.

The summer's work has generally been much more positive this time around, lack of width aside.

In many respects, however, the opener has arrived too quickly for Albion's liking, which is a shame given that our immediate games are infinitely winnable, indeed they still are.

I don't think any of us know if Albion are going to finish closer to 10th and if those new signings – those who have arrived and those still to come – can hit the ground running.

But we can certainly prove the many doubters wrong this season. Let's hope their impact is sooner rather than later. Come on you Baggies!