Comment: Kyle Bartley retirement latest in sweeping West Brom change in new era
In the space of just a few transfer windows Albion have really moved into a new era.
Much of the club's 'old guard' have left The Hawthorns in that period. The latest - and not totally foreseeable but forced by injury - was the retirement of Kyle Bartley, confirmed last Friday.
In the space of two years, but mostly over the last 12 months or so, exits have included Jake Livermore, Matt Phillips, Conor Townsend, Grady Diangana, Semi Ajayi and now Bartley.
There have been others of notable service, but that half-a-dozen are a core whose time in the Black Country spanned at least five years during which, by and large, they were regulars in the side.
In that time they clocked up many, many hundreds of games. Some joined Albion at the tail-end of its near-decade in the Premier League. Others arrived for Championship tilts. All were 2020 promotion-winners and relegated the following year.
All were widely considered decent servants at least. But not all were totally popular, certainly throughout their Baggies careers. The days of Darren Fletcher, Jonny Evans, Gareth McAuley, Craig Dawson, Chris Brunt and James Morrison had more or less gone.
All carried significant experience and, as a result, were part of leadership groups in certain Albion squads under Darren Moore, Slaven Bilic, Carlos Corberan and others.
