West Brom notebook: Dressing room promotion, Corberan replica, kit decision
West Brom midfielder Alex Mowatt has made the step up into Albion's leadership group after the club's wheeling and dealing in the summer saw a number of experienced heads leave the group. Albion bid farewell to Conor Townsend and Okay Yokuslu, as well as to the likes of Matt Phillips, Adam Reach and Erik Pieters in the summer.
While those who are just through the door continue to get used to their new surroundings, Carlos Corberan will continue to lean on a select few experienced players - experienced in both the sense of football and specifically Albion. Club captain Jed Wallace makes up the group, alongside current on-field captain Kyle Bartley, long-serving Darnell Furlong and now Mowatt, who is into his fourth year at The Hawthorns.
"I think you can manage this with the players we kept, we keep some of the players who have leadership skills, players who can be examples for new players, players who understand the culture here very well," Corberan explained "Like we talk specifically about the captains, Jed, Bartley or Furlong and Mowatt – who we have added to this group too.
"So they are players with a lot of experience, all of them, in the Championship, in the country, in the club here. For me they can keep showing the values to all the new players and young players that we have in the club."
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Carlos copy
New Stoke City manager Narcis Pelach has hinted that he could look to roll out certain aspects of what he learned from his time working with Corberan during their time together at Huddersfield. When Corberan left Town with Jorge Alarcon, Pelach decided to remain and ultimately ended up at Norwich City with David Wagner.
Now, Pelach is a manager in his own right; the 36-year-old Spaniard is at Stoke, replacing Steven Schumacher, but got his tenure underway with a defeat to Hull City on Friday night. He considers the role a long-term challenge and expects that there'll be behaviours he looks to introduce in the Potteries which he himself picked up on while with Corberan.
"Yes I think so," he said, when asked if fans can expect Stoke to replicate ideas employed by Albion in time. "Carlos knows that we had something special between us. The first time we met on Leeds' training ground that we were going to work together from the frist two minutes of our conversation. Two years later when I decided to leave him because I wanted to know new coaches but Carlos is someone who is very, very, very hungry.
"When you see West Bromwich play, I see an identity in the team. It's very difficult in the Championship, very tough. He's a great coach and I think we'll see him in the top level. My biggest influence with him was to see him, every day without exception, working so hard. That's difficult to do after two years but Carlos did that. I learned a lot of things from being next to him."
Pink for good reason
Albion will wear pink this weekend at Hillsborough when they take on Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship (12:30pm KO) - and for a poignant reason. While Albion have already used their pink this term down at QPR on the opening day, they'll be marking the 30th anniversary of Organ Donation Week when opting for pink in Yorkshire.
Albion, managing Mark Miles, boss Corberan and winger Wallace all welcomed representatives of the Birmingham Adult Transplant Sport Team to the club's training ground this week. Miles has since registered to become an organ donor himself.
Dr Kieran Donnelly, a Consultant in Critical Care and Anaesthesia at Sandwell and West Bromwich Hospitals Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted that our local team is spreading the message as part of national organ donation week. By wearing pink on Saturday Albion are doing a really fantastic thing for the community and healthcare in this country.
“More than 7000 people are currently on a waiting list for a transplant in the UK, including 250 children. Sadly, some of those people never get a lifesaving or life-changing transplant and historically the local area has a low consent rate compared to the national average, although this is improving.
“I urge everyone to consider donating their organs and then discuss this with their friends and family before, hopefully, registering to become a donor online.”
Miles added: “We are proud to be supporting Organ Donation Week. Our engagement with local hospitals on this subject has grown in recent years and we are delighted to help further support their campaign by wearing pink for our televised fixture at Sheffield Wednesday.
“We are hopeful that by raising awareness of Organ Donation Week we will encourage people to consider this very personal decision.”