Window reflections – stronger but work still to do | OneFootball

When the summer transfer window slammed shut (it always seems to do that, rather than just “close”) at 7pm last Monday, the general view of Albion’s business from the majority of sensibly-minded Baggies fans was positive, albeit with one or two question marks. Overall, I feel the squad is stronger but I would have liked to have seen one or two more through the door, but I am also conscious that with PSR, we can’t necessarily have everything all at once.

The most notable expressions of dissent centred around the departure of Tom Fellows, not so much that he was sold, but that the fee he commanded was not what was expected. Although officially undisclosed, in common with all the transfer fees involving Albion players over the window, it was rumoured to be in the region of £8-10m plus add-ons and a sell-on clause, which was significantly lower than the £15-20m that we had been expecting. And when compared with the £40m+ that Southampton had reportedly received for Tyler Dibling, it left many Albion fans angry.

While I was certainly disappointed, it is not difficult to see why the deal happened. Firstly, comparing transfer fees is a pointless exercise as values are skewed by age, the length of the remaining contract and the relative situation of each club and the player himself. Premier League experience, that Dibling has and Fellows doesn’t, is a huge factor and, ultimately, it’s all about what a club is prepared to pay.

With Fellows, there was no clamour for his signature and, despite rumours to the contrary, the bid accepted was the largest ever made for the player. The other factor that Andrew Nestor and his team will have had to consider is whether Fellows was likely to increase in value were he to stay. With two years left on his contract, his value would tail off unless he were to re-sign, and the peak of his Albion form was in the first half of last season – there is no guarantee of that returning, even if his main foil, Josh Maja, were to return to full sharpness. Furthermore, while Mason had picked Fellows in each of his league games in charge, I’m not 100% convinced that the Head Coach wants to play with a traditional chalk-on-boots winger.

For me, the Fellows deal was painful because he was on of our own, but with a promotion add-on and a sell-on clause, if he does become the star we hope he could be, there may well be a future windfall to enjoy.

What makes that deal more palatable, is the rest of the business that was done, particularly when it comes to the outgoing players.

We would all have like to have seen Torbjørn Heggem stay at the club but the £10m reportedly offered was too good a deal to turn down for a player signed for about 3% of that twelve months ago, while the £3-4m for Darnell Furlong also seems too good to be true given his age and, if we’re honest, his slowly declining form. Caleb Taylor was another that we had high hopes for but, given the defensive additions brought in this summer, it seems clear that the coaching staff do not feel he is good enough to challenge for the first team and a fee in the region of £2m seems like good business. Releasing both Devante Cole and Gianluca Frobotta was also a no-brainer given their inability to impact the first team in their time at the club.

As for the new faces, it is obviously far too early to tell whether they will all be a success – for every Isaac Price, there may well be an Adam Armstrong, for every Torbjørn Heggem, a Gianluca Frabotta. The early signs from those we have seen are, however, promising.

Nat Phillips looks to be the commanding centre back that Kyle Bartley was for much of his Albion career. WhoScored.com have him as the Baggies’ best performing player so far this season with a man-of-the-match display at Stoke City thanks to his winning goal. George Campbell is the second of six new defensive additions and has already showed his flexibility having played at left back, right back and in his preferred position in the centre of defence. He has looked solid bar one slip at Wrexham that could have been costly, and he has also shown a desire to roam forward when the opportunity arises. It’s particularly gratifying to see him settle in so quickly in his first footballing experience on this side of the pond.

Krystian Bielik is well-thought of at Birmingham City having captained their promotion-winning side last season, although they have chosen to go in a different direction this season and that he is yet to play a minute for us due to injury is a little concerning. There may be another question mark over deadline day loan signing, Charlie Taylor, who spent most of last season on the treatment table. He has, however, played for the Saints this season and he comes with excellent pedigree from his years at Burnley. It remains to be seen whether he is seen as a first choice left back, or just as back up to Callum Styles who can, of course, be deployed further forward.

Another defender who has had his own injury problems is Chris Mepham, but with a full uninterrupted season on loan at Sunderland last season, those issues may well be behind him. He looked classy on his debut at Stoke City and, at 27, is very much in his prime for a defender. The final defensive addition was something of a surprise, in that it was permanent deal rather than a loan. Alfie Gilchrist is a highly-rated right back from the Chelsea academy who, like most Chelsea youngsters, has found his path to the first team difficult. He does, however, already have a Premier League goal to his name as well as a full campaign in the Championship having been on loan at Sheffield United last season.

In midfield, the loan signing of Toby Collyer, holds much promise although, despite some kind words from his Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, it remains to be seen what he can really do. He only has a handful of appearances for United and this is his first loan spell, but the early signs are promising – he has only had limited time off the bench but he has looked confident, eager to take the ball whether under pressure or not, and with some more time on the training field during the international break, perhaps we might see him in a starting role soon.

Further forward, Aune Heggebø has already made himself popular with the Hawthorns faithful with his superb hold-up play and incredible work rate. If he can start finding the net on a regular basis, he could be another superb Scandanavian find. With Maja still apparently limited to short appearances and Dike injured once again, I would have ideally like another striker brought in.

The final new signing is another loan signing in Samuel Iling-Junior from Aston Villa. Another young player with Championship experience, having been on loan at Middlesbrough for the second half of last season scoring once and registering two assists in sixteen appearances. Ostensibly a left winger or wing-back, he can operate on both sides and, having spent several years in Italian football, he is not your average 21-year-old loanee.

The other slight concern I have is at goalkeeper, although I am happy to give Josh Griffiths the time to grow into the excellent ‘keeper I believe he can be. I am not overly convinced by Wildsmith as his number two. That neither wanted to take the number one shirt, or perhaps neither was offered it, could have been taken as an indication that the club were on the lookout for another stopper, but nothing materialised.

On the whole, I am happy with the business done although I am conscious that the positive feelings are impacted by the good start to the season on the field. Heggebø, Phillips and Campbell, the players we have seen most of, have all impressed and we can only hope that most of the rest are up to scratch. We can’t expect every new signing to be a success, but Bilkul have a reasonable record so far with Price and Heggem the obvious stand-outs.

A brief look at the careers of the new signings is below.

Nat Phillips

Born: 21st March 1997 (age 28), BoltonSigned: 23rd June 2025, undisclosed feeFrom: Liverpool

Nat Phillips is the son of former Bolton Wanderers footballer, Jimmy Phillips, and played for his father at the Trotters’ academy as a child. He moved into the Liverpool academy at the age of 19.

For a 28-year-old, I’m sure that he doesn’t have as many appearances as he would have hoped, but having chosen to stay at a top Premier League club for so long, it is no surprise. You have to be an exceptional talent to break through from the academy at a club like Liverpool but the club hierarchy obviously thought him promising enough to keep around.

He made his debut for the Reds in Merseyside Derby in the FA Cup in January 2020 having been recalled from his loan in Stuttgart briefly to cover a short term injury crisis. He made his first Premier League start that October and impressed in his Champions League debut in a 2-0 win over RB Leipzig. He ended that season with 18 first team starts for Liverpool but struggled for game time during the following campaign and ended up moving out on loan to Championship Bournemouth in January 2022.

With first team opportunities continuing to be limited, he spent the next season on loan at Celtic and Cardiff City before joining Derby County on loan for the whole of last season. During 2024/25, he played 33 times, the most he has managed in a single campaign.

Aune Heggebø

Born: 29th July 2001 (age 24), Bergen, NorwaySigned: 7th July 2025, undisclosed feeFrom: SK Brann

Having had considerable success with their last foray into the world of Norwegian footballers, Albion’s scouting team returned to fjords to pick up striker, Aune Heggebø, from SK Brann, the largest club in Norway’s second city, Bergen.

The 24-year-old had spent all of his football career in his native country before moving to the Hawthorns, most of it with his home-town club. As a youngster, he had loan spells with two other Norwegian clubs.

With a decent ratio of a goal in every three appearances, Heggebø’s record for Brann shows that he has scored on average every 150 minutes of playing time which, if he could replicate in the Championship, would make him a very useful addition to the squad.

George Campbell

Born: 22nd June 2001 (age 24), Chester, Pennsylvania, USASigned: 18th July 2025, undisclosed feeFrom: CF Montréal

Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, George Campbell relocated with his family to Atlanta, Georgia, and he joined the academy at Atlanta United at the age of 15.

He made his debut for the club’s reserve side in the USL Championship in March 2019, aged just 17, and made his debut for the first team in MLS a year later.

Campbell’s only goal for Atlanta came in September 2021 in a 3-0 win over an Orlando City team containing Daryl Dike, who suffered the ignominy of scoring an own goal.

After three years with the Five Stripes, Campbell signed for CF Montréal in December 2022 making his MLS debut for the Canadians against New York Red Bulls in April 2023. He scored his only goal for Montréal with a late winner against New England in the August of that year. He became almost an ever present over his two and a half years in Canada and earned his first international cap in January this year in the US’s 3-1 victory over Venezuela at the Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

Krystian Bielik

Born: 4th January 1998 (age 27), Konin, PolandSigned: 14th August 2025, undisclosed feeFrom: Birmingham City

Bielik was born in Konin, a town about 150 miles west of Warsaw, and played youth football with his home town club Górnik Konin and Lech Poznań before joining the academy a Legia Warsaw at the age of 16.

He had made only a handful of senior appearances for the Polish giants before he was spotted by scouts from Arsenal and he made the move to the Emirates aged just 17 in January 2015 for a fee reported to be £2.4m.

Bielik would only make two substitute appearances for the Gunners in his four-and-a-half years with the club, both in the League Cup. The first was in Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in October 2015, the second in their 4-0 win at Nottingham Forest a year later. Despite his time in north London, he is yet to make a senior appearance at the Emirates Stadium.

He made three loan moves from Arsenal, the first to Birmingham City in 2017, a club that he would return to five years later. Blues were in the Championship that season and the Pole made ten appearances before the arrival of Harry Redknapp as manager saw a change in formation and no place for Bielik. His next loan spell, to Walsall for the second half of the 2017/18 campaign, proved to be a mistake as he could not force himself into the thoughts of Jon Whitney or his replacement, Dean Keates.

At Charlton Athletic the following campaign, Bielik finally found regular football. Lee Bowyer saw is qualities and he made his debut for the Addicks just two days after his loan was agreed, starting in a 1-1 draw at Doncaster Rovers. His first senior goal was a late winner at Southend and he would go on to make 34 appearances in what proved to be a successful season for Charlton. He scored in the play-off semi-final against Doncaster Rovers which the Addicks eventually won on penalties, and also played in the Wembley final that saw them promoted to the Championship.

That season earned him a permanent move away from Arsenal and he joined Derby County in the summer of 2019. He started the season well with the Rams, a regular starter playing largely as a defensive midfielder before a red card against his old club, Charlton, at the end of the year saw him suspended before he suffered an ACL injury when playing for the U23s, and injury that would keep him sidelined for almost ten months.

His return would be short-lived as, three months after re-establishing himself in the side, another knee ligament injury would see him ruled out for almost all of 2021. He returned to the side a year to the day after suffering the injury and scored a stoppage time equaliser off the bench against Birmingham City.

Derby were relegated to League One that season and Bielik was told that he would not be considered for the Polish World Cup squad in the winter of 2022 if he were a third tier player, and secured a loan move back at Championship Birmingham City for the 2022-23 campaign. He featured in 35 Championship games for Blues in that season, and also earned his place in Poland’s World Cup squad playing in all four of their matches in Qatar. He scored his first goal for the club against the Baggies in their 2-0 victory in February 2023 and made the move permanent the following summer. He was a fixture in the team for the next two seasons, as Blues were relegated and then won promotion back in May.

Toby Collyer

Born: 3rd January 2004 (age 21), WorthingSigned: 15th August 2025, season long loanFrom: Manchester United

Born on the south coast in Worthing, Toby Collyer began his footballing life with local club, Brighton & Hove Albion, making his under-18 debut at the age of just 15.

In March 2022, he joined the Manchester United academy after turning down a contract offer from Brighton. After impressing with the U23 side, he was included in the pre-season first team squad that travelled to Norway and the US in the summer of 2023, making his first senior appearance in a 3-1 friendly defeat to Wrexham in San Diego.

Collyer had to wait another year for his competitive debut, in the 2024 Community Shield match against Manchester City, and made his Premier League debut against Liverpool the following month. His first start came in United’s 7-0 win over Barnsley in the Carabao Cup in September last year and he has since added two starts in the Europa League games against Rangers and Romanian side FCSB.

Chris Mepham

Born: 5th November 1997 (age 27), LondonSigned: 28th August 2025, undisclosed feeFrom: Bournemouth

Born in Harrow in north London, Chris Mepham joined the Chelsea academy at the age of 10, but was released at the age of 14. After being rejected by both QPR and Watford, he joined the Brentford academy and signed his first professional contract with the Bees in 2016.

He made his senior debut as a substitute in Brentford’s 5-1 FA Cup win over Eastleigh in January 2017, his first start in the League Cup later that year and broke into the league team in December ending up with 17 starts in the Championship by the end of the season.

He started the following season as a first choice centre back and his strong performances earned him a move to Premier League Bournemouth in the January transfer window for a fee reported to be in the region of £12 million. He made his debut as a late substitute in the Bees’ 4-0 win over Chelsea at the end of January and made his first start a few weeks later against Wolves.

He soon established himself as a starter for the Cherries but his career at the Vitality Stadium was interrupted by injury on a few occasions and the decision was made for him to go out on loan to Sunderland last season and he made 37 starts for the Black Cats helping them to a play-off win at Wembley.

Alfie Gilchrist

Born: 28th November 2003 (age 21), LondonSigned: 29th August 2025, undisclosed feeFrom: Chelsea

Alfie Gilchrist was born in Kingston-upon-Thames in London and started his footballing life at QPR before moving to the Chelsea academy at the age of 10.

After captaining many of Chelsea’s youth teams he was first included in the first team squad in May 2023. He travelled with the first team squad to the US that summer, playing in their 5-0 win over Wrexham, and made his senior competitive debut as a late substitute against Crystal Palace in December.

His first start came in the FA Cup in January 2024 against Preston North End and he first found the net for Chelsea in the 6-0 win over Everton, once again as late substitute. That earned him his first league start in the next match which turned out to be a 5-0 defeat at Arsenal.

Gilchrist earned some much-needed first team experience on loan at Sheffield United last season, starting almost all of their league games until an ankle injury all but brought his season to an end in January.

Samuel Iling-Junior

Born: 4th October 2003 (age 21), LondonSigned: 1st September 2025, season long loanFrom: Aston Villa

For a 21-year-old, Samuel Iling-Junior has had an unusual career having taken a decision to leave England at a very young age.

Born in Islington, Iling-Junior joined the Chelsea academy at the age of eight but, despite being offered scholarship terms nine years later, he opted to take up one of many offers he had received from top European clubs.

He chose Juventus and moved to Italy in September 2020. After an impressive couple of seasons playing for the U23 team in Serie C, he broke into the first team in the autumn of 2022 and scored his first goal in a 2-0 win at Atalanta in May 2023. He ended up the season with 18 appearances, the majority from the bench. In 2023/24, he upped that to 27 appearances including four league starts before moving back to England to join Aston Villa last summer.

Last season, he was back in Italty for the first half of the season on loan at Bologna, but was recalled in February to be sent out on loan to Championship Middlesbrough. He scored his first goal in senior English football in Boro’s 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers in April.

Charlie Taylor

Born: 18th September 1993 (age 31), YorkSigned: 1st September 2025, season long loanFrom: Southampton

Charlie Taylor is a true Yorkshireman having been born in York before joining Leeds United as a youngster. He progressed well at the academy and made his first team debut at the tender age of 17 in a League Cup tie against local rivals Bradford City in August 2011. He made his league debut the following month before moving to Valley Parade for a month-long loan spell in January.

He had further loan spells with York City and Inverness Caledonian Thistle, but it wasn’t until he went to League Two Fleetwood Town that he managed to get some regular football. He became the Cod Army’s regular left back as they won promotion to League One beating Burton Albion in the 2014 Play-Off final at Wembley.

There wasn’t an immediate promotion to the first team for Taylor on his return to Elland Road, but an injury to Stephen Warnock in January 2015 gave him an opportunity and he grasped it with both hands and was in the first team for the remainder of the season scoring twice. He would be a regular for the following two seasons and was consistently linked to a move to the Premier League, with Albion amongst the clubs mentioned.

It wasn’t until his contract ended that Taylor got his move, opting to join Burnley in July 2017 with Leeds due compensation due to Taylor being under 24. A fee of around £6 million was eventually agreed and Taylor ended up spending seven years at Turf Moor playing more than 200 times for the club, 161 of which were in the Premier League. His only goal for the club came in a 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth in his 198th game for the club.

Burnley offered Taylor a new contract in the summer of 2024 following the club’s relegation, but he opted to join Southampton who had just been promoted back to the top flight. A series of injuries prevented Taylor from establishing himself at St Mary’s, but he did return to the first team for the final league game of last season, a 2-1 home defeat by Arsenal, when he played in the middle of a back three. He started both of Southampton’s Carabao Cup games this season before being made available for loan.