Carlos Corberán has been speaking about the importance of “togetherness” at Albion on the eve of the 2024/25 Sky Bet Championship campaign.
The Baggies kick-off the new season down in the capital at MATRADE Loftus Road Stadium against QPR on Saturday lunchtime (ko 12.30pm) following a summer of change in B71.
A number of first-team players have departed, with seven new arrivals welcomed into the senior group including Ousmane Diakité, Tobjørn Heggem, Joe Wildsmith, Paddy McNair, Devante Cole, Lewis Dobbin and Gianluca Frabotta.
Corberán insists the club are working extremely hard behind the scenes to add further reinforcements and says the desire is as strong as ever to give his best for the badge and the fans.
Carlos said: “We’ve been working so hard to create the new project and the new squad.
“We’ve been operating with restrictions, but also with the desire to give this club what it deserves.
“We know that we have been spending pre-season working very hard in terms of recruitment and we know that we still have to work very hard in this area.
“It’s true, we haven’t had the best possible pre-season in terms of working with new players because some have arrived this week and some are still to come.
“We have been working in pre-season with probably less than half of the players who were here last year, however, we’ve been working on something really important and that is our knowledge of our academy players.
“In football, when you have a difficult financial situation and you have restrictions, the work we need to do with our academy has to be best we can possibly give because they are going to be the future of the club.
“We’ve worked with new players and we’ve worked with our young players.
“Pre-season hasn’t been ideal and nobody likes to have the restrictions that we have right now, but all of these things can’t make us forget about the size of the club we represent. We have to represent this club in the best way that we can.
“I always think that the more difficult the situation, the more togetherness you need to create. You are going to get your strength from this togetherness.
“We need to be together and we need to adapt to the new reality of the club and from this adaptation, grow again together to achieve what we all want to achieve as fans, players and staff.
“I think it's important that we understand our position and restrictions, but we cannot use it as an excuse.
“We're all so focused and so motivated to work together to give this club the best and to put it in a positive position.”
Saturday's hosts QPR had a really positive end to the 2023/24 and will be targeting a much higher finish than last year's 18th.
The boss understands the challenge that awaits, but believes his group know exactly what they must do if they're to leave West London with a point or three.
“Like always in the Championship, and especially when you play away, you know that the game always is a challenge.
“It’s always demanding and you have to increase your competitive resources to face the challenge.
“QPR have kept the base of the squad which allowed them to achieve the results they were achieving in the previous year. They have also bought a couple of players which will help them be even more competitive.
“The coach, Marti Cifuentes, has shown that he is a very, very good coach at this level.
“So this is the opponent that we are going to face, but we have to be focused on ourselves, like always.
“We know the difficulty and we know the challenge. When you’re away in the Championship, because you don’t have the 25,000 people backing you in the stadium like when you are at home, it increases the mental challenge.
“Tomorrow, though, we’ll step on to the pitch and use our own possibilities in the best way possible. Hopefully, we’ll be able to achieve the result we want to achieve.”
