On the morning of Tuesday 22nd July West Bromwich Albion fans received two bits of good news, the first was that fan favourite Ben Foster had put pen to paper on a new four-year deal committing his long term future to the club, the second – England’s U21 right back Andre Wisdom joined on loan for the season.
Wisdom is a very promising prospect joining Liverpool’s youth setup from Bradford City in 2008, since then he has played and captained England’s youth teams at various levels with 37 caps and 3 goals in all games for his country. But it was last October when he started to catch the eyes of fans other than Liverpool ones. In October 2013 Wisdom joined Derby on a season-long loan and immediately put into the back four and was ever present in the side. He helped Derby to finish in the playoffs but couldn’t help them achieve promotion as Wisdom and his teammates lost the play off final to QPR. Looking for regular first team football but in the Premier League, Wisdom decided a switch to West Brom would be the best option and he became their starting right back despite them also signing Christian Gamboa, who impressed people during the World Cup for Costa Rica. And since that first Premier League game of the season against Sunderland which resulted in a 2-2 draw, Wisdom hasn’t looked back. He has constantly kept Gamboa out of the team, only being replaced by him for the Capital One Cup games against Hull and Bournemouth and the away 2-1 league loss against Liverpool when he was ineligible to play. Albion put an entirely new back four together over the summer but Wisdom has adapted well and fitted right in keeping 4 clean sheets in 9 league games for The Baggies. Early on he seemed to struggle but it was a new defence learning how to play with each other as they conceded 7 goals in four games, and after impressing at the game at Anfield, Albion fans were asking for Gamboa to be given a chance. Manager Alan Irvine, however, kept his faith in Wisdom and from mid-September to mid-October Wisdom really excelled.
On the 21st September West Brom beat Spurs 1-0 away in a shock result where all of the defence impressed. Wisdom did a brilliant job down the right hand side tracking back well and getting forward on the attacks, something that was highlighted in his next two league games. Burnley visited The Hawthorns and got trounced 4-0 – still to date their biggest defeat of the season – and despite having minimal defending to do Wisdom was more than happy to help the team attack as he ran constantly down the right for support over the 90 minutes. But it was the game against Manchester United at home on the Monday night when Wisdom really showed his worth.
Just 6 minutes into the first half Wisdom picked up the ball around the half way line and with no-one ahead of him he ran down the line for 40 yards before putting in an inch perfect ball into the path of Sessègnon which was expertly dispatched into the top corner. This was Wisdom’s first assist of the season and it was a brilliant one at that, but Albion fans will remember his match up against Di Maria more than the assist. The Argentine midfielder was in fine form and many expected him to tear through Albion’s defence but for 76 minutes Wisdom had the better of him and kept him quiet tracking his runs and not allowing him any time on the ball, a quite brilliant job by someone who only had 14 Premier League caps before that game.
Since then Wisdom had built on his good form with a 2-2 draw against Palace and last weekend he kept his third away clean sheet of the season in Albion’s 1-0 away win at Leicester. This was the first time this season Leicester had failed to win or score at home which shows what a good result it was. Looking into the recent future Wisdom will have to be on top form as Albion face in-form Newcastle, Chelsea and Arsenal in the next 3 weeks but the young Englishman will be one of the first names on the team-sheet.
Wisdom after a shaky start has impressed Albion fans and it’s a testament to him that he keeps Gamboa out of the team who had a brilliant World Cup with his country, and at the moment you can’t see him being displaced in the team. I’m sure one day Wisdom will complete his journey from England’s under 16’s team and get his first full international cap (and many more after that) and at the age of 21 he certainly has time on his hands.
