Two High Most “Rated” Players Agreed Deal Lately With Albion, Coach Smiles

Two more new faces confirmed as window draws to a close

After seven new signings were confirmed before the start of the season, two more new faces have been added to the Albion squad in the past week with a slightly more familiar one set to join them, although nothing has been confirmed at the time of writing.

Uroš Račić joined last Thursday on a loan deal from Italian club, Sassuolo. Račić has played in Spain, Portugal and Italy in addition to his native Serbia and is no stranger to being out on loan having had three different spells in his career already. At 6′ 4″, he is a physical specimen who will add height to the Albion midfield to replace that lost with the departure of Okay Yokuşlu and it leaves Corberán with four players vying for the two central midfield roles with Molumby, Mowatt and Diakité. Each offers something slightly different and it will be interesting to see whether the Serb can force his way into consideration for a starting position.

There has been a lot of talk about Callum Styles and his potential to make it to the top of the game largely on the back of an excellent season with Barnsley in 2020/21 when the Tykes surprisingly made the play-offs. When Barnsley were relegated at the end of the following season, he was expected to leave but instead signed a new contract before going out on loan to Millwall. There is a question mark as to whether he has really recovered his form since the injury that saw him miss three months of that season, but he had a good first half of last season back in League One with Barnsley which earned him a loan spell back in the Championship at Sunderland. Styles can play across the midfield, and has even been known to play at left back, but it is as a left-sided midfielder that he has had most of his success. With Grant starting the season well, and a new option on the verge of signing, Styles may find it difficult to break into the starting line up but I’m sure Corberán is happy to have an extra option, particularly with Diangana likely to be missing for a while.

With the window closing tomorrow, and one more new face expected to be confirmed later today, I’m sure Corberán will be relatively happy should that be the business concluded when the club’s financial situation is considered. Yes, another striker would be very welcome given that Daryl Dike is not going to be fit until next year, realistically, and another injury to Josh Maja would start ringing alarm bells. Devante Cole is obviously an option while we also know that Karlan Grant can be used as a striker if needs be, but that seems to be the one area of the squad that is still short of numbers, but then that is nothing new for Corberán.

A summary of the careers of Račić and Styles are given below – let’s hope that their time at the Hawthorns is a successful one.

Uroš Račić

Born: 17th March 1998 (age 26), Kraljevo, Serbia
Signed: 22nd August 2024, season-long loan
From: Sassuolo

Standing at 6′ 4″, Uroš Račić is a significant physical presence to add to the Baggies midfield and brings plenty of European experience as he embarks on his first spell in English football.

Born in Kraljevo in central Serbia, Račić joined Belgrade team OFK Beograd as a youngster and was spotted by Serbian giants, Red Star, when he scored against their youth team at the age of 17. He signed for Red Star a few days before his 18th birthday and made his debut as a substitute in their 4-1 at Radnik in May 2016. He made his first senior start in the December of that year at home to Mladost but made more of an impact the following season, starting 19 games and scoring three goals, the first against Backa in August 2017.

In the summer of 2018, Račić moved to Valencia for a fee of €2.2 million and spent much of his first few months in Spain playing for the B team. He made his debut for the senior team in a Copa del Rey match against Ebro in December 2018 and, the following month, was sent out on loan to Tenerife in the Spanish second tier. He was a regular for the Canary Island team scoring once in sixteen appearances before returning to Valencia. The following season, he was out on loan again, this time at Famalicão in the Portuguese top flight – he had a successful season involved in all but one of Famalicão’s league games as they finished sixth, just outside the European qualifying places, and reached the semi-final of the Portuguese Cup.

His performances in Portugal were noticed by his parent club and, for the 2020/21 campaign, he was a regular for Valencia making 35 appearances and scoring two goals. He was in and out of the team the following season, however, making just 13 starts and he was back out on loan in Portugal for the 2022/23 season, this time at Sporting Braga, with his highlight scoring three times in the two-legged Portuguese Cup semi-final against Nacional.

On his return to Valencia, Račić was sold to Italian Serie A side Sassuolo, again for a fee of €2.2 million. In his first campaign in Italy, he failed to secure a regular spot starting just eight games in Serie A as his club were relegated at the end of the season.

Račić received his first international call up in March 2021 making his debut in a World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland – Serbia won 3-2 against an Irish team including Jayson Molumby and Dara O’Shea. He was a member of Serbia’s squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but failed to make an appearance, and last played for his country as a substitute against Lithuania in a European Championship qualifier in September 2023. He was not in the Serbian Euro 2024 squad that were in England’s group in Germany and only two of his twelve caps have been as a starter.

Callum Styles was born in Bury in Lancashire but joined the Burnley academy as a youngster. He was released at the age of 16 and signed for his home town club, making his senior debut for the Shakers in the final game of the season against Southend United in May 2016 to become first player born this century to play in the Football League.

He would make his first senior start on Boxing Day of that year in a goalless draw at Fleetwood Town and would end the season with thirteen senior appearances. After a dozen appearances in the following campaign, his former academy club came knocking and he moved to Oakwell for a fee of £500,000 in August 2018, albeit he returned to Gigg Lane for the first half of the following campaign.

He would make his first appearance for the Tykes in March 2019 as a substitute against Accrington Stanley in League One. Although Styles started their 3-0 defeat to Carlisle in the League Cup in August 2019, he would not make his first league start for Barnsley until the following year, doing so in their home game against Birmingham City in the Championship in February 2020. He was involved in all of Barnsley’s games in Project Restart that summer, starting the final four games of the campaign unwittingly helping Albion’s cause on the final day of the season as he scored his first senior goal in Barnsley’s 2-1 win at Brentford that secured the Tykes’ Championship status and helped to confirm the Baggies’ automatic promotion.

His place in Barnsley’s first eleven was now secured and he would start all but two of their Championship matches in the 2020/21 campaign, scoring four goals, as the Tykes surprised most observers by securing a place in the top six – he also netted the winner against Norwich City in the FA Cup Fourth Round. Unfortunately, Barnsley were relegated at the end of the following campaign and there was a lot of interest in Styles’ signature during the summer transfer window. However, he opted to sign a new contract at Oakwell before joining Millwall on a season-long loan.

He was in and out of the starting line up at the Den, but managed to score one goal for the Lions, against the Baggies in east London in October 2022. The following February, he suffered a muscle injury in training and ended up missing three months of the season only returning for the final four games of the campaign.

Back at Barnsley for the first half of last season, he scored three goals in twenty-two appearances before moving on loan to Sunderland on 1st February 2024 until the end of the season. He made twelve appearances for the Black Cats registering an assist to Pierre Ekwah’s winner at the Hawthorns in April.

Although born in Lancashire, Styles qualified to play for both Ukraine and Hungary via his grandparents and opted for the Magyars earning his first cap as a substitute against Serbia in a friendly in March 2022, a game in which Uroš Račić also came off the bench. He played in both of Hungary’s victories over England in the Nations League in 2022, starting their 4-0 win at Molineux in June, and he was also in the squad for Euro 2024. His only appearance in that tournament, in the 1-0 win over Scotland, was his 23rd cap.