West Brom boss Carlos Corberan gives his take on Jeremy Sarmiento loan recall
Boss Carlos Corberan felt Albion’s Jeremy Sarmiento plan was working – and stressed the club could not have done more in the loanee’s development amid Brighton’s recall.
The Baggies discovered just before the January transfer window opened on Monday that the Premier League club were recalling the 21-year-old, after he arrived at The Hawthorns back in the summer on a season-long loan.
Sarmiento has now joined Albion’s Championship rivals Ipswich, who are chasing automatic promotion. The Brighton attacker arrived at the club in the summer still overcoming a metatarsal injury suffered earlier in the year and Albion had to be patient in bringing him up to speed.
He then injured his quad in October after a first Baggies start, before returning and going on to net the winner against Cardiff City on his return to the starting line-up.
The wide-man then started six of the next seven games before his sudden recall on Monday.
Baggies boss Corberan has explained that Sarmiento had to go through a process at Albion after arriving as he recovered from an injury.
He said: “Me personally as a coach, we received in Jeremy a player who, unfortunately for him, hadn’t developed enough because of the injuries.
“That had a lot of impact on his development as a player. That’s why his first target was to be the player robust enough to play Championship games.
“We knew this when we signed him. We knew that there’d be a process to build his endurance so he could play professional football at this level. Unfortunately with the injury he hadn’t done that before.
“The first part of the loan was focusing on this, until the moment arrived I was thinking that he was ready to play in the first XI of the team.
“It was the game of Watford. I put him on the bench and three days later I put him in the first XI for the first time, against Millwall.
“After this, he got injured and it was in that game. With the injury he tried to play against Preston but in that moment broke down. He was out of the team six weeks. After that, the process started again.
“We were building his form, and his body, with a lot of focus from my medical and physical department to help him develop enough consistency to play Championship games.”
It now looks as though the young winger is set to go out on loan to another club, with Championship automatic promotion chasers Ipswich Town looking likely to be the front runners for his signature.
Corberan has insisted that he does not know the reason behind Sarmiento’s January recall.
But the Spaniard insists Albion have done everything they could for the former Benfica and Charlton Athletic academy player, amid his injury issues on arrival and while at The Hawthorns.
He added: “Fortunately the work we put on him was working because he started against Cardiff and then, of the last eight games, he was in the first XI. After, there are things that won’t depend on us.
“I don’t know the reason behind it, but there are things we cannot control and I am not going to be focused on this. We just wish the best for someone who has been with us, but everything I can say about my club – they have made their best to make it work.”
