West Brom players "hungry" for Championship restart
Technical director Luke Dowling claims Albion’s players are champing at the bit to get their Premier League push back underway.
Slaven Bilic’s squad are building toward the Championship’s provisional restart date of June 20 and expected to enter the third and final phase of the EFL’s training protocols next week.
The speed with which the second tier is aiming to resume has been criticised by some clubs yet the Baggies, who sit six points clear in second place with nine matches remaining, are not among them.
Dowling believes some players would be willing to play this weekend, such is their hunger to finish the job and take the club back to the top flight.
He said: “Whatever date you came up with would not please everyone; someone would be unhappy about it or point out faults.
“I think that applies to so much in this situation. Because of the number of games and also the play-offs at the end, the restart wasn’t going to be much later than June 20 with July 31 being the shut-off point.
“But I don’t think it bothers us too much and I think the boys are all quite excited by it.
“Looking at the players this week, I think they wouldn’t mind starting on Saturday which is testament to how they have applied themselves at home and at the training ground.”
Albion’s players followed individual training programmes in the weeks after the season was suspended on March 13.
They returned to group work at the club’s training ground on May 25 and are currently allowed to take part in limited contact sessions.
The Baggies are due to restart their campaign with a home match against Blues, with every fixture due to take place behind closed doors.
“Ultimately, football won’t be normal until we have beaten the virus and we’re all safe to mix again but until then, we have to make the best of things,” added Dowling.
“But it feels like the game is coming back to life. Since the re-start dates were announced, my phone started ringing again and it felt like the game had been jump-started back to life.
“It’s going to be a strange period with the fans missing but the reward at the end is massive for us and I sense the players are in the mood to meet the challenge head on.”
