West Bromwich Albion's James Morrison Eyes Transfer Market Surge

West Bromwich Albion boss James Morrison is pushing for one last surge in the transfer market – and he expects help to arrive.

The Championship side are close to agreeing a deal worth up to £7.6m with Manchester United to bring Toby Collyer back to The Hawthorns on a permanent basis after his loan spell in the first half of last season. Talks have been ongoing for weeks. Now Albion are finally on the brink.

Morrison, though, is not treating Collyer as the final piece.

“I am hopeful,” he told BBC Radio WM when asked about more business before the 1 September deadline. “There's been a lot of hard work been going on behind the scenes. We have to do things a little bit differently, we have to be clever about it and I felt that we've been doing that because we've had a lot of signings.”

Eight, to be exact. The latest is Spanish winger Kareem Tunde, snapped up from Levante this week and already under close inspection from his new head coach.

Tunde, just 21, arrives as the kind of wide threat Morrison has been craving.

“It's a big opportunity for him, coming to a new culture, still only being 21,” Morrison said. “He's an exciting prospect and an exciting player, so we're delighted to have him.

“It just gives us different options now and I felt like we've always missed that little bit in games where we could stretch our opposition and he's got that pace and power that we've been looking for.”

The message is clear: Albion intend to run teams back towards their own goal this season, not simply pass around them.

Early signs are promising. Two games, two wins, and a squad starting to look like Morrison’s own rather than a patched-up version of last year’s group.

Homecoming with an edge

Next comes a test that tugs at the emotions as much as the league table. West Brom travel to last season’s beaten play-off finalists Middlesbrough on Saturday, a club that shaped Morrison’s football life.

He grew up there. He started his career there. He has gone back there plenty of times. The sentimentality, he insists, has worn off.

“I've been back many times and played, so I'm over that,” he said. “I can remember my first one going back and I was all over the place, I was terrible. So I learnt from that experience.

“I think my last time there as a player, I ended up scoring and I still remember that feeling.”

The memories remain vivid, but they will not soften his approach. He knows exactly what awaits.

“I'm really looking forward to the game, but also I know this is going to be one of the toughest away fixtures we'll face.”

That is the standard of opponent he wants his side measured against. And he has already laid down the challenge to a group that has opened the season with a perfect record.

“They've set a standard now and they can't let it drop.”

New faces are coming. Demands are rising. The question for Albion is no longer whether they are building, but how far this remodelled squad can push once the window finally shuts.