The 'Shire': The story behind the room where West Brom's top transfer gems were first unearthed

Lacklustre windows under the previous ownership had seen little money spent - as Albion brought in home grown free agents with a littering of loan deals.

It left transfer windows looking predictable - but since the takeover under Shilen Patel and the appointment of Andrew Nestor as the club's sporting director, things have changed.

No longer do Albion opt for what could be seen as the easy and cheap option. Across a summer and a winter window and this current summer, Albion have been creative in spotting talent all over the globe.

It could well be low priced untouched talent, or spending money to bring in highly rated talents who have made a mark in other, lesser leagues.

It is a different shift, and a shift back to what life used to be like at Albion.

Nestor has already spoken about how Albion are re-building their processes and scouting networks in a bid to bring in quality talent.

Those scouting networks and processes haven't been there in recent years or haven't been put into use prior to the arrival of Patel and co, and it showed.

The latest approach across these windows is a throwback - a throwback to the days when Albion signed the likes of Claudio Yacob and co, players fans had never heard of.

Back in those days there was a simple but highly detailed process that may be slightly different to how Nestor and his staff now operate.

The shire and the cinema seats

Albion's recent transfer window success is a throwback to the days of former sporting director Dan Ashworth, when Albion were unearthing a string of top quality signings at low prices.

Whether in the Championship or the Premier League, Albion seemed to be hitting the marking more often than not.

And Ashworth revealed the pretty simple process that led to those signings, in an exclusive interview with the Express & Star back in 2022.

He said: "All our signings were done in a similar way during that time,.

“We had a small, cupboard-like, room that we called the Shire and we put some satellite boxes in there to record games from all around the world.

“Every day Lee Darnborough (chief analyst) would record 12 games before he went home.

“We put six or seven cinema seats in there and we’d just sit and watch games.

“And then we’d go to Tony (Mowbray) and say: ‘I think we’ve found one, come and look at this one’.

“If he agreed, we would then back it up by going out to watch them.”

As Ashworth explained, every signing had their own story. The signing of Claudio Yacob was reportedly on the back of Ashworth heading out to South America to try and watch the tough tackling midfielder in training.

And he outlined the signing of Peter Odemwingie, who arrived at Albion and netted the goals to keep them in the Premier League.

Ashworth explained: "Odemwingie was first spotted playing for Nigeria.

“We thought we had done a loan deal but Lokomotiv changed chief executive and said they would only sell him so we ended up paying 1.5million euros which was still a brilliant deal.

“He scored the next day but I was in Germany watching another game. We agreed the deal and then I flew out because we were still in the transfer window.

“I was at the game and I was checking my phone. It was 0-0 against Sunderland and then it came through – 1-0 Odemwingie.

“They must have thought I was an idiot in the crowd because I just shouted ‘yes.’ It was a massive buzz, a massive buzz. It doesn’t get any better than that.

“I remember negotiating Peter’s deal and he thought what he was getting in wages was net – which is how you negotiate in Russia.

“But it was gross so we had a problem right at the end.

“Peter is a bright guy and realised he was going to lose 40 per cent in tax. So we had to have a handshake that if he scored the goals to keep us up we would re-negotiate his contact which he did and we did.

“He wanted to come by that point, but he actually came for less money than he was earning in Russia.”