Make more loan moves
The final area from the 2010 window that I believe Albion can improve in is the activity in the loan market.
Throughout the whole summer window of 2010, the club didn’t make a single loan signing.
We did sign Carlos Vela in the January window on loan from Arsenal and the Mexican gained somewhat of a hero’s reputation after scoring late equalisers against rivals Wolves and Stoke; however, Vela then fell out of favour under Roy Hodgson.
Signing players on loan is a great way to bring in footballers with tremendous quality without spending large sums of money.
Albion have a terrific record when it comes to loan signings in recent years with the likes of Harvey Barnes, Dwight Gayle, Grady Diangana and Filip Krovinović all arriving to help boost the Baggies the top of the Championship.
Ben Foster and Youssouf Mulumbu became fan favourites on loan deals and both went on to sign permanently with the club. The same is soon to be said for Matheus Pereira.
And Romelu Lukaku still holds the club close to his heart despite now playing at the highest level of world football since his temporary switch to The Hawthorns.
With the vast squad depth that a lot of the top clubs possess nowadays, some of the best talents in the country could be acquired on loan, especially now the Baggies are a Premier League side.
I’d like to see Albion make a move for Liverpool forward Rhian Brewster, who turned heads during his prolific spell at Swansea.
It’s another matter altogether, though, with regards to Liverpool possibly loaning him out or not.
However loan moves do often cause issues, as we saw in the case of Harvey Barnes who was recalled by Leicester halfway through the 18/19 season, consequently sending our season and Darren Moore’s managerial reign into disarray.
Teams will opt for permanent deals in most cases as it brings security with regards to the players’ future, as there won’t be any problems with recalls, for instance.
As we’ve covered, there are so many things that Luke Dowling and the recruitment team could learn from a decade ago but I’m sure they’ll be fully prepared for when the window starts gathering pace.
If you enjoyed this article, you might be interested in: Five West Brom players who could thrive in the Premier League.
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