West Brom youngsters Caleb Taylor and Tom Fellows remained at the club when the prospect of another loan was possible
Caleb Taylor and Tom Fellows stayed at West Brom after the transfer deadline in order to help flesh out Carlos Corberan’s senior squad and to free up opportunities for fellow academy products to venture out and continue to develop with regular football elsewhere.
Defender Taylor played the best part of 50 games at Cheltenham Town last season, in the middle of a back three, and although his chances have been limited this year so far, he made the bench on Saturday in the defeat to Huddersfield Town. Competition is stiff, with Semi Ajayi, Kyle Bartley, Erik Pieters and Cedric Kipre also contending for places.
Winger Fellows caught the eye in pre-season. He spent last year at Crawley Town, although he didn’t source as many minutes as Taylor he appears to have benefitted from his experience away from The Hawthorns. Fellows has been a regular in the match-day squad this term and he scored in the under 21s’ Premier League Cup win over Sheffield United on Monday.
It’s been a busy summer but Albion’s young crop; while those two players were kept on, Zac Ashworth, Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Mo Faal had all secured loan moves over the course of the window, before trio Rayhaan Tulloch, Ethan Ingram and Jovan Ingram all switched to EFL clubs on deadline day.
“Making a squad with less than 20 players would’ve been a mistake,” Corberan said. “Let’s say we have 18 senior players, and in Caleb and in Fellows we have the two players to complete the 20 you need to have – at least 20. I wanted to keep them because they were on loan last year and I want to keep them close to our ideas, to evaluate them and to help them progress.
“Jovan and Ingram were players who hadn’t really had the experience before of loans. Between the training ground and this stadium, there is a gap where the player needs the loans to progress and, after, to play with the team.”
Albion haven’t been too affected by the international break; Jayson Molumby is away with Ireland and Semi Ajayi is representing Nigeria, but the remainder of the squad will be focusing fully on the trip to Bristol City next weekend, having taken stock and used the first week of this break to recover from the first stint of the Championship schedule.
“The first few days of the international break are recovery days,” Corberan added. “We will start to work before the weekend, trying to accumulate all the days that we can. Then, after, in the second week, we will prepare normally for the next game.”
