Albion have promoted seven youth teamers to their under-21s for next season.

They will team up again with Simon Rusk, the former under-18s coach who is now in charge of the development squad.

The seven being kept on are goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, defenders Ben Barclay and Dylan Barnett, midfielders Dessie Hutchinson, Will Collar and Connor Tighe and forward Ragnar Mar Larusson.

Albion’s under-18s enjoyed an impressive first half of their debut season at category one level.

Although the going then got tougher, they ended the campaign with wins over Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Southampton to their name.

Academy manager John Morling said: “The under-18s have shown they can produce at this level since moving into the category one league, and the majority of these players have also stepped up to the under-21s at some stage during the last twelve months.

“The benefit of having Simon in charge of the under-21s is that he has coached these players before at under-18 level, which helped us when making our decisions.

“We have seven talented youngsters who have shown signs of developing into the players we believe they can be.

“They still have a long way to go, but now they have the chance to continue growing and we congratulate them on earning their new deals.

“As always, it was another incredibly difficult decision and for those players who haven’t been awarded new deals, we thank them for their hard work during their time with the club.”