Baggies focus on streamlined squad

Chairman Jeremy Peace believes reducing the size of West Brom’s first-team squad – and putting the accent on quality rather than quantity – will bolster their chances of staying in the Barclays Premiership.

Albion, who have returned from a short training break in Dubai, now have 25 senior players compared with 35 at the start of the 2004-05 campaign.

But Bryan Robson’s side are better equipped than 12 months ago and nine points better off than at the same juncture last season when they pulled off a final-day escape.

Peace said: “We moved people on in the transfer window like Lloyd Dyer, Darren Moore and Riccardo Scimeca and Bryan made his decision with players such as Robert Earnshaw and Jason Koumas.

“But we signed Nigel Quashie permanently from Southampton and Williams Martinez and Jan Kozak on loan who should improve us.

“It’s a natural progression. At the start of last season we had 35 squad members and we’ve got that down to 25. We’ve tightened up and concentrated our resources on fewer players.

“Maybe that will give us more of a chance of staying up as the seasons go by. There is now a good balance between the way the footballing side and the financial side of the club are run.”

Peace is taking nothing for granted in terms of Albion hanging onto their top-flight status as they begin the countdown to Sunday’s home encounter with fellow strugglers Middlesbrough.

He said: “This season we are nine points better off compared to this time last season but the main thing is to try to get to 40 points.

“The margin between success and failure is fine at this level. You can look at the fixture list and think what games you can win – but it never works out like that.”