Tony Pulis: West Brom's future is bright

Boss Tony Pulis reckons the West Brom academy is the most talented he's ever seen at a club he's been in charge of.

The Baggies chief brought 16-year-old striker Jonathan Leko on for his Premier League debut in the goalless draw at Sunderland today.

In recent years the youth teams have produced last season's top scorer Saido Berahino, as well as Isaiah Brown, who was snapped up by Chelsea, and Jermoe Sinclair, who joined Liverpool as a 14-year-old.

Leko is the latest of the production line, and now the Baggies are safe, Pulis is hoping to give more youngsters all-important Premier League minutes.

He said: "The academy has got some really talented players. The problem is that the players at West Brom have not been farmed out and allowed to go and play either non-league football or league football.

"For Jon to play today having come out of 21s football or 18s football, it's too big a jump. We have to loan our players out.

"It's the best club I've been at in respect of quality of talent but it's no good having that quality and talent if it's not tested in correct places.

"It's like shadow boxing, I've seen some great fighters, when they've got their headguards on. Then they go into rings and take their headguards off and they're different people.

"That's what we've got to do, we've got to harden these up and make sure they're resilient enough.

"They have to understand they're not just playing for themselves, they're playing for the team, they're playing for the supporters, and they're playing for the person upstairs who's paying their wages.

"That's a massive part of development and our players in the academy need that."

But it was an Albion player with much more experience who was Man of the Match.

Goalkeeper Ben Foster was instrumental in keeping the Black Cats at bay, suggesting he could still be in line for a late surge for a place in Roy Hodgson's England squad for Euro 2016.

Pulis said: "Ben's been like that since he's come back. I think people forget that we haven't had him for six months this season. He's a top goalkeeper, top lad."