Albion fans - and their new head coach - were given another reminder of the strong foundations on which the club has been built in the past few days.

Of the potential for further improvement and development.

It came when the 25-man Premier League squads were confirmed for the coming months of the season.

For 25-man, read 19 in Albion’s case.

That is how many of the spots are filled on their list.

That shows the potential, from that perspective and finances permitting, to make an addition or two when the next window opens.

Of the 25 players permitted, up to 17 can be non-homegrown.

Players can be in international squads other than England’s and still be considered “homegrown”, depending on their history.

Tariq Lamptey, now of Ghana, and Spain’s Robert Sanchez are good examples.

Albion have just ten of their permitted 17 non-homegrown players, namely Pascal Gross, Alexis Mac Allister, Kaoru Mitoma, Jakub Moder, Enock Mwepu, Pervis Estupinan, Leandro Trossard, Deniz Undav, Jan Paul van Hecke and Joel Veltman.

They have a huge list of under-21 players, who do not count for the declared 25.

And there are some prominent names among them.

Moises Caicedo and Billy Gilmour are the most obvious on a list of players counted as under-21s.

Evan Ferguson, Julio Enciso and Jeremy Sarmiento are also first team matchday squad members who do not count in the 25 for now.

That shows the potential for growth and improvement within the squad.

Not to mention some of the on-loan talent on that list of under-21s or players like Andrew Moran, Odel Offiah, Ed Turns or Jack Spong, who might all be wondering what will happen to them under a new boss.

De Zerbi got a good look at some of those squad members when he attended a private friendly against Chelsea on Saturday.

There were calls for Albion to make more signings late in the summer transfer window.

No doing so, while certainly justfied anyway at the time, might be even more advantageous now.

 

 

Albion remain fourth going into what is now a break in fixtures for all club with international action under way.