Moore and Baggies players look to future
DARREN Moore will speak with his players this week to establish who wants a crack at promotion and who plans to move on.
Albion’s new head coach is naturally keen to keep his best players as he assembles a squad capable of returning to the big time.
“They’re all contracted here, the first thing is to speak to our players as individuals,” he said.
“That will be one of the key things I’m looking to achieve this week.”
Ben Foster and Chris Brunt have committed their future and Kieran Gibbs is expected to follow suit, but it’s likely to be a summer of major change.
Skipper Jonny Evans, £18 million record signing Nacer Chadli and striker Salomon Rondon all have release clauses and are expected to leave.
Craig Dawson, Ahmed Hegazi, Jay Rodriguez and Jake Livermore are also likely to attract interest from top-flight clubs. “We’ll come together as a club and look forward to what I’m sure will be a busy transfer window,” Moore added. He will work closely with technical consultant Giuliano Terraneo when it comes to recruitment, but chief executive Mark Jenkins stressed Moore would have the final say on incomings. “There will be no players brought in without Darren saying yes to that,” he said.
“There’s no point bringing players in that Darren doesn’t want because they simply won’t play. It’s just pointless.”
Albion spent nearly £40 million on transfer fees last summer, a clubrecord outlay, and Jenkins says Moore will have a “strong budget” with the club having just banked £96 million in TV cash and prize money from the Premier League.