Comment: West Brom's rebuild is on shaky ground already

No signings, a catastrophic technical consultant and senior professionals openly protesting has left Darren Moore with a skeleton squad on his pre-season camp in Portugal.

It is a tough start for Moore, who finds the swell of positivity from his six games in charge and subsequent appointment starting to ebb away through little fault of his own.

Uncertainty clouds the futures of the majority of his senior players, and replacements have not yet arrived, even with four established professionals already out the door.

It’s over six weeks since Moore was appointed, and just five weeks until the Championship season starts. Right now, Albion do not look ready.

Not only do the Baggies desperately need some action in the transfer market, but they also need some clarity in the boardroom.

Giuliano Terraneo’s appointment came from China and has proven to be a disastrous one. The Italian infuriated both Albion’s own players as well as other clubs and has subsequently been sidelined by chief executive Mark Jenkins.

There are rumours over arrogant negotiating tactics in transfer dealings, and on top of a high-profile stand-off with Craig Dawson and Ben Foster, other players are also growing irritated at the club’s hard-line stance over their futures.

It’s an age-old conflict, one between player and club, and you can see both sides of the coin.

On the one hand, Albion cannot afford to sell everyone this summer and the club have every right to hold out for market value for their assets.

What’s more, Jenkins has stated that keeping the squad together gives the Baggies the best chance of bouncing straight back up.

But if last season taught us anything, it’s that keeping a player too long against his will can be detrimental in the long run.

With such a high turnover of players predicted, perhaps this summer ‘reboot’ was always destined to get messy.

But of all the candidates to go on protest, Dawson and Foster were two of the unlikeliest.

Dawson’s desire to force through a move to Burnley is understandable, even if his actions are unpalatable.

Jay Rodriguez is also keen to rejoin his hometown club, but he has not taken such drastic steps.

Foster’s 180-degree turn is even more alarming, and hopefully there is more to it than just Premier League interest turning his head.

Foster has been at Albion for seven years. His children are Baggies fans and he’s settled in the area.

Two months ago, he pledged his allegiance to the club and lobbied for Moore to get the job.

But since then the Baggies have released Boaz Myhill, Foster’s number two for years, and Gareth McAuley, who he described as one of the best defenders he’s ever played with.

“I’d like to keep a core of the players that really want to dig in and work hard and be in a tough fight to get out of the Championship,” he said, back in April.

Only time will tell if releasing Myhill, McAuley and Claudio Yacob was the correct decision, but with no replacements in place, right now it looks like a mistake.

Letting McAuley and Myhill go in particular has left the club unable to sell Foster or Dawson.

Foster is the only senior goalkeeper left and thanks to Ahmed Hegazi’s £10m release clause, Dawson is the only senior centre-back that Albion know they can keep.

The upside of Terraneo being sidelined is somewhat tempered by the gap he leaves.

There may be plenty of financial expertise on the board, but little football experience.

At the moment, it is Moore and Jenkins who are speaking to agents, and in the past week when the head coach has been in Portugal, it has been Jenkins with director of football administration Richard Garlick and club lawyer Simon Carrington.

It gets even worse at the end of next month, when Garlick leaves for the Premier League.

All this has created an incredibly tough start for Moore, who finds himself trying to hold a squad together while several of his players are at odds with a board who appear incapable of signing replacements.

Moore does not have the luxury, like others, of having previous targets to draw on.

He is starting his squad-building from scratch during one of the club’s most important summers of recent years.

But thanks to the Terraneo disaster, not only has the process been delayed, but Albion’s head coach now has no technical director to help him through his first transfer window.

Moore has an abundance of good will from the fanbase but if he’s going to succeed, he needs help from both above and below him.

The first half of the summer has not gone to plan, July needs to be navigated much better.