'Incredible business': Torbjorn Heggem's £9m Bologna switch is biggest indication of how West Brom have changed under Bilkul

In days gone by, under the previous regime, there would be key Albion players who went on to bigger things who really Albion should have been getting decent fees for.

There are stories of Sam Johnstone, the England international who departed on a free.

Then further back than then, reports of Albion turning down big money offers for players such as Jonny Evans, who then would leave for a fraction of what they could have sold him for.

There are many examples. But those days are gone - long gone. Now the club is in a place where they are being able to strike deals such as the Torbjorn Heggem one that was finalised on Friday.

Signed for just £525,000 last summer - the defender has gone on to break into the Norway side, and scoop two end of season awards following a superb first campaign at The Hawthorns.

As it has transpired, it was his one and only campaign at Albion with the defender completing a £9m switch to Serie A side Bologna.

Excluding add-ons on top of the fee  that is an £8.5m profit on a player in just 12 months. Yes, £8.5 million.

It is an unbelievable piece of business from Andrew Nestor and Bilkul. Last summer Albion had to sell, and then in January when a bid came in for Alex Palmer it was too good to turn down.

They made tough decisions then and this summer it was clear they were going to have to make a tough decision to keep the lapping tide of the PSR rules at bay.

But to do it in this manner, making that amount of profit on one player, just shows Albion have now just moved on from what happened under the previous regime - they've kicked on from it.

As we have said you don't want to lose your best players, but if Albion can keep doing this, where could it take them?

It is a similar model to the likes of Brentford and Brighton and how they achieved their path to the Premier League. They are probably two of the last clubs to break into the top flight and cement their place there.

And they did it by doing what Albion are doing now, identifying players for low prices, selling for high, re-investing. It shows how much the landscape has changed in 18 months of Bilkul.

What could it looked like in another 18 and how much more will Bilkul have brought in and re-invested to take Albion to the next level? The answer is significantly more.