'Deserves it' claim made of West Brom star Tom Fellows
Few know Tom Fellows better than his Albion team-mate Caleb Taylor.
The pair have come through the ranks together with the Baggies. They joined aged 10, in the same school year, and more than a decade later they are first-team colleagues at The Hawthorns.
Fellows, who turns 22 on Friday, and Taylor, 22, have been side-by-side. Both made professional Baggies bows against Arsenal in 2021, both starred as teens as Albion's under-21s beat Wolves to win the Premier League Cup - but their journeys have been different.
Winger Fellows, as of this summer a European under-21 champion with England, has enjoyed the more immediate rise into Albion senior reckoning. He swiftly became Albion's star turn and now has almost 100 appearances under his belt.
That is often the case with attackers - a quicker route on to the pitch and a potentially more open opportunity to catch the eye than with defensive prospects.
For centre-back Taylor the route has been a more scenic one. It has been via more loans - three compared to Fellows' one at Crawley - and a permanent breakthrough into first-team reckoning is yet to come.
Regardless of that, watching the rise of his close friend has been a source of joy and pride for Taylor, ever since that Friday night in the duo's home city of Birmingham in October 2023.
