West Brom check into HQ for introductions as Ryan Mason era begins - with midfield link clarity
Ryan Mason's spell as Albion head coach begins in earnest today as his new squad reports for duty at the club's training base.
The Baggies players will meet new head coach Mason and his backroom team, featuring assistant Nigel Gibbs and coach Sam Pooley, for the first time at the training HQ in Walsall.
The full senior squad will be present, save for the club's international cohort who were away representing their nations at the beginning of this month, including Torbjorn Heggem, Isaac Price, Callum Styles and Tom Fellows.
The latter is still on European Championship duty with England under-21s, who have a semi-final against The Netherlands in Slovakia at 5pm.
But despite a change in management players will return to familiar surroundings at the club's base, where basic testing will take place across the first couple of days as well as introductions with Mason and others.
The head coach and his new and existing staff returned to the training ground at the beginning of this week to settle into their surroundings and ensure preparation for the players' arrival. Damia Abella, James Morrison and Boaz Myhill remain on the coaching staff.
Among those due in is new arrival Nat Phillips, the central defender who checked in on a three-year contract after an initial £1million move from Liverpool.
The players will be in situ for the remainder of this week, with the weekend off before work continues next week.
New boss Mason, appointed at the beginning of June, is set to meet the press for the first time next week.
One player who will not be checking into Albion this summer is veteran midfielder Barry Bannan.
The 35-year-old Scot, formerly of Villa, has been at Sheffield Wednesday for 10 years and is weighing up a new deal at the crisis club. Rumours have swirled about a potential Albion approach for the ball-playing midfielder's services, but those claims are understood to be wide of the mark.
Meanwhile, former Albion youth coach Richard Beale is set to take up a new role at League One outfit Reading.
Beale, also formerly of Villa and Blues' youth set-up, departed the Baggies after four years this week and is set to join the Royals' senior backroom staff, after former Reading assistant Gibbs moved to The Hawthorns as Mason's assistant.
