NIGEL Clough will be looking for another goalkeeper as Brad Collins will not be joining the Brewers next season
The 22-year-old spent last season at the Pirelli Stadium on-loan from Chelsea and Clough had hoped to sign him permanently but now must look for a replacement.
The manager said: “Brad won’t be signing for us which is obviously disappointing as we were quite a long way down the road with it and Brad’s agent had assured us that he would be signing.
“So we move on. We were hoping that Brad would sign but as you can never be sure you are always looking for the next one. There are plenty of goalkeepers out there in a similar situation to Brad.
“The model of bringing in a young goalkeeper on loan works well and we will be looking to do that again. We have shown what we can do for young players because we allow them to play and we can see what that has done for Brad.
“Young players need an opportunity and that’s what we say to all the clubs and the prospective loan players – you will have an opportunity.”
Clough now has a couple of goalkeepers on the top of his list of targets.
He said: “We have already made calls about the two priorities on our list.”
Alex Bradley who was on loan from West Brom last season will also not be joining Albion.
Clough said: “I think signing three young players from our own Academy has changed our thoughts. We have a lot of young players in the squad which means we unfortunately can’t do anything with Alex. We have to give our own players a chance. They might be a little bit behind Alex but not too far and if we have a space on the bench let’s give it to Ben Hart, Nathan Morley or Ethan Vale.”