Kane Wilson has reflected on his time at West Bromwich Albion and how the sacking of former manager Tony Pulis impacted his progress. Wilson broke into the first-team sphere in the pre-season of 2016 under Pulis, when he was just 16 years old and at a time when he was doing his GCSEs.
Wilson made his first-team debut, having impressed in various friendlies, at Northampton Town in the EFL Cup defeat in the early stages of that campaign, having been fast-tracked as a rampaging full-back. Albion at that time were in between right-backs, having moved on from the likes of Cristian Gamboa and having leaned on Craig Dawson to fill that role.
Wilson would eventually give way to the recruited Allan Nyom and be sent out on loan still as a burgeoning teenager, but upon his return a season later he was greeted by a new face at the helm - Alan Pardew. Wilson, who know plays for Derby County after spells at Forest Green Rovers and Bristol City, knew he'd have to head out and secure more minutes elsewhere.
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"West Brom wanted me to be a centre-back at first because I was kind of big and I was good on the ball," Wilson told the Derby Telegraph, "but equally I was also really good at running with the ball too. They then put me into midfield until I was about 12 or 13 and then my mum and dad got pulled into the academy head office. They were told that they wanted to fast-track me into the first team at 16.
"At the time West Brom had players like Darren Fletcher, Claudio Yacob and some big midfielders but they didn't have a right back. They were like he's obviously good at dribbling, he can defend, can we put him there? I was fine with that if I could get to the first team and a year and a half later, I was on the plane to Austria at 16. Pulis told me that he wanted me to learn the position. so I was loaned out to Exeter at 17. While I was there he then got the sack.
"When I came back, everything had changed. It is pot-luck sometimes. Alan Pardew came in and I don't think he knew my name because I was out on loan. I came back in January and trained for a week but he was never going to call on me because he was fighting for his job in the Premier League. I then went back out on loan again because I don't like coasting. If I hadn't, I would have been in the stands."
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