Carlos Corberan confirms West Brom wage situation which had to happen | OneFootball

Carlos Corberan has opened up on the transfer restriction which the club had to deal with last summer

Carlos Corberan has confirmed that West Brom were forced to reduce their wage salary by 30 per cent last summer amid concerns over the financial regulations.

The Baggies had a busy transfer window following their fifth place finish in the Championship table.

A number of players departed the Hawthorns, including many leaving at the end of their contracts before the likes of Brandon Thomas Asante, Okay Yokuslu and Conor Townsend were sold.

Despite the massive overhaul of the squad, Albion now have as many points at this stage of the campaign as they did last year, with a total of 32.

Corberan confirms West Brom transfer restriction

Corberan has praised the new ownership, led by Shilen Patel, for overseeing the management of these financial restrictions, which had to be cleaned up after the previous owner.

He also revealed that their situation improving is what led to the signing of Mikey Johnston from Celtic, which cost £3 million according to Lewis Cox.

"Shilen's project couldn't be there, probably, because we had to decrease 30 per cent the size of the group,” said Corberan, via Express & Star.

“So we reduced 30 per cent, in terms of the salary, from the squad that made the play-offs, to face the season.

"We knew what our market was and the club did a very good effort to create the most competitive squad we could.

"But sometimes the expectation changed.

“We changed many players, they finished their contract, we sold players like Okay, Townsend and Asante - we signed players because we needed to, we lost many players.

“Sometimes people see signings as a symptom of investment, but in some points it was a symptom of replacements to cover positions.

"We made a lot of changes with financial restrictions - not limitations.

“But the possibilities to make movements increased that's why we brought [Mikey] Johnston who was here last year - so that's not an improvement, it's trying to arrive to the level we had."

West Brom are currently eighth in the Championship table after 21 games played.

Patience needed at West Brom

Patience is still needed at West Brom, as the club has had to deal with the remaining issues left behind by Guochan Lai.

Supporters would’ve been hoping for immediate investment in the team from the Patel family once they got on board, but it hasn’t been that simple.

Now that they’ve been able to manage the books, that might come in the next couple of transfer windows, although January is a typically difficult time to do business.

And Corberan deserves a lot of credit for maintaining a competitive West Brom side throughout all of these off-field issues, which have held him and the squad back over the last couple of years.