Baggies building from the back

It was something of a "revolving door" summer at The Hawthorns.

Thirteen senior players departed West Bromwich Albion, if you include the three expired loans, and nine came in to replace them.

Of those nine incomings, four were centre-backs and two were full-backs. So, two-thirds of Albion's summer business was concentrated on making our backline stronger and younger.

At the other end of the field, Albion allowed players who had contributed 26 out of our 43 assists in 2024-25 to leave. The result has been somewhat inevitable.

At the back, Albion look solid. The Baggies have the seventh-best expected goals against in the Championship.

They have also future-proofed that defence.

Kyle Bartley and Semi Ajayi, while solid campaigners at this level, had a combined age of 65. They have been replaced by Chris Mepham and Nat Phillips, who are just as experienced but are much younger at 27 and 28 years old respectively.

Darnell Furlong, while integral to Albion's success under Carlos Corberan, was mere weeks away from his 30th birthday when he left for Ipswich Town.

His replacements, George Campbell, a 24-year-old centre-back turned right-back, and Alfie Gilchrist, a 21-year-old from Chelsea, represent a clear intention to build a backline that can serve us long-term.

So, Albion have built from the back in this transfer window, but there is still work to do evolving our attack.

The Baggies have been one of the poorest teams in the league in terms of creativity. They are 18th for xG created and 18th for goals scored, leading to speculation that a lack of spark in attack could hold Albion back this season.

However, the Baggies went big in January last year, spending about £6m on Tammer Bany and Isaac Price. With the Tom Fellows money banked and not spent towards the end of the summer window, there is every chance they could do the same again.

Also, we have seen little to nothing yet this season of Karlan Grant, Daryl Dike and the aforementioned Bany. So, there are attacking reinforcements to potentially return.

Whatever happens in the rest of the season, this is the start of a rebuild for Albion, and, after a successful overhaul of the Baggies' backline, it seems inevitable our attack will be next.

Listen to more from Chris Hall at the Albion Analysis