Express & Star

The secrets of West Brom's production line

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West Brom's academy staff are rightly proud of what they have achieved in recent years - but boss Mark Harrison refuses to rest on his laurels.

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When 17-year-old Jonathan Leko lined up against West Ham, he became the first teenager boss Tony Pulis had started in a league match since he joined Stoke in 2006.

The Welshman came to the Baggies with a reputation for ignoring academy footballers and focusing wholly on the first team.

His criticism of under-21s football after the Hammers' match proves the 58-year-old holds little regard for the youth set-up in this country.

But when Pulis joined Albion back in January 2015, the club's jewel in the crown was academy product Saido Berahino.

The talent coming through the ranks has persuaded him to start looking closer to home.

Harrison, 42, has been at the club for 11 years, and has been in charge of the academy for the past seven. So what's his secret?

He explained: "We recruit locally, we work very hard on programmes, and we have a very clear philosophy on how we want to teach and coach the players.

"Look at the players that have left, Jerome Sinclair was a centre forward, Isaiah Brown was an attacking player, Yan Dhanda is an attacking creative player.

"We have a lot of attacking creative types of footballer which is a reflection of our programme, we want to develop a good technical footballer.

"There's a type of player that we're cultivating here, which we think is important if you're going to play at the highest level.

"Crucially, we have a pathway to the first team. Some of the bigger clubs will have 40 professional young players, whereas we have a far smaller group."

Children develop both physically and mentally at different ages. Harrison reckons one of the most important things is to individually tailor that route to the first-team.

He said: "Part of that pathway will be going out on loan, part of that pathway will be early development in the under-21s.

"But you must look at each individual and what suits each player. There is no one size fits all development programme.

"We already have clubs from League One asking about taking Jonathan Leko and Tyler Roberts out on loan, but then you do get some players that stay with the first-team squad.

"Mauricio Pochettino is renowned for it at Southampton and Spurs. Some players need to go out on loan, others need a balance."

Leko, Roberts and fellow 17-year-old Sam Field have all been with the first team recently and there is more talent on the horizon.

Midfielder Dan Meredith is representing Scotland in the European U17 Championships this week.

Although they didn't qualify, Welsh goalkeeper Adam Przybek and Irish centre-back Dara O'Shea have also been picked for their countries.

Kane Wilson is an under-15 right-back who's played for the club's under-21s this season and that age group is particularly exciting.

Strikers Rayhaan Tulloch and Jamie Soule, plus holding midfielder Tom Solanke, have all been picked for England under-15s. The future's bright, but the job's not done.

Harrison said: "We're very humble, but we just want to keep producing local home grown players. There's loads more work to do."