West Brom did not have the busiest of January transfer windows in the end.
Over the course of that month, there were just three news players added to the first-team squad at The Hawthorns.
They were then added to last month, when midfielder Yann M’Vila signed as a free agent on a contract until the end of the season.
Of those additions, both Mikey Johnston and Andreas Weimann have already made important contributions for West Brom.
However, their other signing from January, Callum Marshall, has yet to really get the chance to do so.
Now, that is an issue that manager Carlos Corberan, has opened up about.
Callum Marshall waiting for his chance
Back in the January transfer window, Marshall joined West Brom on a loan deal from Premier League side West Ham, that is set to run until the end of the season.
Since then however, the striker has had to wait for his opportunity. The 19-year-old has so far made just three appearances for the Baggies.
All of those outings have come as a late substitute. That has led to questions and frustration from some West Ham fans, about why Marshall was allowed to move to The Hawthorns.
Now, Corberan himself has spoken about the striker’s playing time at West Brom, telling The Birmingham Mail:
“It’s a pity because he’s a player with a lot of good skills and he’s in a position where there is still a lot of growth.
“He is in a growing process but he isn’t going to be just ready with game minutes. It’s part of this. We have players who went on loan to places where we wanted them to play, and they didn’t…
“When you are 17, 18, 19 years old and you go into one level of the Championship, to a club like West Bromwich which is in a good position in the table, you cannot go there in your first loan thinking this is under 21 level.”
Next up for West Brom is a trip to the John Smith’s Stadium to face Huddersfield Town on Sunday afternoon.
West Brom not using Callum Marshall more is a surprise
It does seem rather strange that we have not seen more of Marshall since he joined the Baggies.
Josh Maja, Brandon Thomas-Asante and Daryl Dike are currently all out with injury. That leaves West Brom without any real centre forward alternatives to Marshall.
However, the teenager is still yet to really get his chance, with winger Jed Wallace being pushed into more of a central role. Admittedly he has performed reasonably well there.
But if they are not going to use him, it does raise questions about why West Brom signed Marshall.
Doing so may now have closed of a space in the squad, that could otherwise have been filled by a player who may have made more of a contribution in the run-in. Given there is still plenty at stake there in the promotion race, such an addition would certainly have been useful.
There may also be some concern about whether clubs will be willing to loan young players to West Brom in the future, if they see the likes of Marshall struggling for game time at The Hawthorns.
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if the amount of minutes afforded to the striker between now and the end of the season, does change at all.