Terry Burton has said that his arrival at the club will not disrupt transfer plans given the way that Albion work, as our shortlist had already been completed prior to his arrival – the only difference now is that with him and Alan Irvine in place, there will be other recommendations.
The E&S have carried the interview in relation to the speculation linking us with Monaco striker Emmanuel Riviere.
Having already released players, and having signed Craig Gardner and Joleon Lescott, Burton explained.
‘I came in on June 1 so any work on recruitment, really and truthfully, had been done already. Due diligence has been done by recruiters who were out there identifying players 9, 10, 11 months ago that eventually should come to the top of the pyramid, where we get a group of players who ideally should be good enough to come and play in our first team.’
Burton goes on to say that with that shortlist in place now, the next step is obviously can we get them, would they want to come here and then financial implications on top, and that is the stage we are at now because the work to identify targets has long been completed.
‘I’ve been in with the recruiters every day to try to bring together the information that’s out there, because I can’t retrospectively watch them now apart from on a video. You can see most games now but all you’re seeing is the clip that everybody sees. You can’t watch what his positioning is when the ball is over the other side of the pitch.’
Burton goes on to say that you can never ‘back’ somebody when you’ve only watched them on TV because although it’s a good pointer, just as important is their off ball work and the camera doesn’t catch that, so he has to trust the likes of Richard Garlick, Stuart White, Tony Spearing, Jeff Baskerville and Johnny Gibson who have seen these players in the flesh, as they are the ones who have got us to the stage where firm enquiries can be made for players.
‘Now we are just trying to break that down to see whether they fit the head coach’s requirements and I can cast my eye onto it and see if I think they could do a good job for us. It’s a team effort to try and get the best players in.’
With Riviere the latest linked – a suggested £4million offer being prepared – we are also still being linked midfielder Jack Rodwell who looks to be on his way out of Manchester City, and he’s worked with Irvine before like Lescott had, and we are also being linked with Dundee United’s defender Andrew Robertson with the press reporting that we have already had a bid of £1million for the 20 year old left back rejected.
Vital West Brom on:
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