West Brom transfer notebook: ‘New reality’, Unai Emery chat overseas plan, space to ‘fix’
West Brom press conference notes as Carlos Corberan discusses in detail the challenges of the transfer window.
Carlos Corberan took all of ten seconds to bring up the subject of transfers in his first pre-match press conference of the new season. The West Bromwich Albion boss has witnessed serious, but necessary, upheaval in the playing squad available to him over the summer, as Albion work to ensure that they remain within the limitations of the PSR rules.
Albion are heading into their fourth season in the Championship, without parachute payments, having spent plenty on player salaries if not transfer fees in that time in an attempt to return to the Premier League. That effort has proved to be fruitless and has left the club having to ensure that they don’t fall foul of the financial rules for fear of punishments which fellow clubs have felt the impacts of.
Is Corberan excited for the new season? You’d imagine the football fanatic, even in the context of Albion’s summer, is looking forward to the return of competitive action, even if he knows that the recruitment process is by no means completed.
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“Sometimes when you start the season but you are in the middle of the market, and there is more work that you have to do, you’re in a moment where you’re building the process,” he said. “We arrive to the season with 45 or 50% of the players we had from last year. You would like to start the competition having had more time to work with the new players and create new behaviours, but not always the situation in football is ideal.
“We are talking about the biggest club in the Championship, or one of the biggest in this division. When you are going to face challenges to put the club in the place where you want, it’s the biggest challenge you’ll have. Last year, we made a good season where the team made the play-offs. This year, we have much more restrictions financially. The challenge increases, we’ll have more difficulties because we must adapt to the financial rules.
“In the difficult situations, that’s when the togetherness is most important. We need to understand the reality of the club last year is not the reality now. The wages on players that the club could spend before, it’s impossible for the club to spend now. There is a new reality for the club, it’s a consequence of the previous years according to the new rules.
“I can’t tell you about the season until we finish the market. I can only tell you the challenge we have. We are in a year where we know we’ll have new restrictions and we must operate within them. We are in the market still, the club is working with the resources we have right now, at their best to optimise our abilities. Normally the targets depend on the possibilities, so let’s see what we can achieve.”
