Ally Robertson: Sad to see Dara O’Shea go but it’s needs must at West Brom

I wish there could be many more academy graduates to come through and make such a mark on the first-team squad like O’Shea has.

In our day, that’s what happened, but how many come through and become regulars nowadays? It very seldom happens.

It’s great that we’ve helped him launch a professional career and to receive £7million for him in the current climate is a good deal for us.

Dara is not your physically dominant centre-half at 6ft 4 or 6ft 5ins, and I often thought he could’ve done with another couple of inches to help him play the position, but he showed he had other parts of his game.

He’s come through into the side over recent years at times when he could have flourished even more if he had more strong leaders around him in the squad.

He was learning the game at a time we didn’t have a settled back four or back five. When you’re a young kid coming through to the first team you want a settled side. You want leaders on the park to help you, and that’s what think we’ve not had in a couple of years.

I wish him very well in the Premier League with Burnley under Vincent Kompany, a terrific central defender in his day. This can and will make him a better player.

We saw fellow defender Erik Pieters use all his experience last season in shifting into the heart of defence despite coming in as a left-back.

You can see he’s getting a little bit older – he’s 35 in August – and can’t move as quickly as maybe a few years ago, but he has still done a job for us.

He can fit into a few different positions and that is great for a club like us at the current time. He just gets on with it and I think he’s done well for us.

When his contract was up I was hopeful he would sign and stay on, so that was good news.

It’s great that it appears Carlos Corberan will start the campaign with us amid a summer of more Leeds links.

Ideally you want any manager to be in for a decent period of time, say at least three or four years – that allows any boss to build a squad and build a club.

If managers are only in for six months then it’s a continuous cycle and the next man has to start again. Carlos has been in for eight months, he knows all about the players and club and what is needed to make it a better season.

The gaffer’s got to get all the lads together and make sure we’re all singing off the same hymn sheet, which we’ve seen him do since he came into The Hawthorns.