West Brom's January transfer window is on the horizon - although, at this moment in time, you wouldn't expect Albion to be all too busy on the recruitment front. The club granted Carlos Corberan's wish of keeping the bulk of his first-team together last summer, and in the early stages of this season that's been a short-term decision which has bore fruit.

As there was interest from clubs elsewhere in some of Corberan's squad members, so may that interest be reignited in the winter window - especially if Albion are in a position where they might have to move one or two of their higher earners on to balance the books. With any luck, there'll be clarity on the takeover front by then and all concerned can breathe easier.

As things stand, there are few players in this group that you'd imagine Corberan would like to see the back of, or feel he could do without; Albion don't exactly possess the biggest squad in the division and the injuries they have had to cope with this season so far reflect that. Corberan has turned to a number of younger players to help flesh out match-day squads, but you'd imagine the next academy cabs off the rank are already out on loan - Ethan Ingram, Jamie Andrews, Jovan Malcolm and Mo Faal to name a few.

Corberan has found use for practically his entire squad so far, eager to utilise the group at his disposal and constantly press the refresh button by rotating players in various positions across the pitch from one game to the next, but there are two players at Albion currently who might be permitted moves - even if temporary arrangements - for the benefit of all parties once New Year's Day arrives.

READ: Swift, Maja and takeover breakthrough - West Brom's dream international break

READ: West Brom are already planning for the setback which is coming their way

Martin Kelly is a player who hasn't played for Albion since he completed 90 minutes in the FA Cup replay win over Chesterfield at The Hawthorns back in January, with the bulk of his game time coming under Steve Bruce and Richard Beale. Because of that situation, and the centre half pecking order established under Corberan, Kelly was allowed to leave last January.

He joined Wigan, intending to make an impression so that it might've led to a permanent deal in the summer, and by all accounts his debut was going swimmingly - before disaster struck 15 minutes from time when Kelly, man of the match on the night at Blackburn, sustained a knee injury which abruptly ended his season.

Getting ever closer to joining in first-team training back at The Hawthorns after almost 10 months out, Kelly could find himself in a similar situation towards the end of 2023, with six months left on his existing Albion contract - if a loan move before available, Albion could sanction it.

"I have a lot of respect for a player like Kelly," Corberan explained. "Never, for me, in football does a player who has made this kind of career not have special skills. His career has been very important in the Premier League. He has arrived at the club in the last part of his career. He was a player who, especially after I arrived, hasn't had minutes.

"Sometimes a player needs to minutes to recover his level, especially at this age. That's why we decided to loan him and to follow this process, and to see how he was for this season. Unfortunately, in first game for Wigan, he was injured. It has made it difficult to achieve this process.

"Now he is making his recovery. We are helping him in this process of recovery. After this he'll be one player more, knowing he is going to be ten months without playing football. It makes it more difficult, of course, for him to be ready to play. We need to analyse when is the right moment, and to see what is the best decision for him to loan, or to keep. That's something that, for now, I cannot tell you."

Then there is Reyes Cleary. Circumstances dictated that he remained at Albion over the summer, actually against the desire of Corberan, who had earmarked him for an EFL loan prior to his own season-ending hamstring injury in April. Having played under the last four Albion managers - permanent and interim - in the first-team, he's clearly a player who is on the Baggies' radar.

How could Cleary not be? He's a player who scores goals for fun in the under 18s and, now, in the under 21s. This is a striker who has more than 50 academy goals to his name and who, after seven months out, has hit the ground running again with a brace in the PL Cup win away at Reading on Monday night. The simple fact of the matter is that if Cleary had been fit throughout 2023, he wouldn't currently still be at The Hawthorns.

Now back fit and firing, and still being considered game to game by Corberan having been involved regularly in first-team training, January could also present a different sort of loan to one that Kelly, for example, might secure - Cleary has seen teammates Ingram, Faal, Malcolm, Andrews and Rayhaan Tulloch secure loans in the summer and they're all playing regularly in League One or League Two.

It's not outside the realms of possibility, then, that Cleary might join them moving out in the winter window and getting some much needed first-team game-time under his belt elsewhere. It's understood that there were at least two EFL teams who'd have been keen to have taken him in the summer, in another scenario.

"He is still making recovery, one player after a long-term injury will need time," Corberan confirmed. "He is one player that we wanted to loan out this season to have the experience on loan, unfortunately we couldn't because he was injured.

"We were analysing him a lot in the last year, all my time here, many times he was training with the first team and he played in the cup. That's why my evaluation was the loan, because he hadn't had it yet, in the same situation for example Jamie Andrews did this year, needing the loan, or especially Ingram, another under-21 regular without the senior football experience.

"After you never know, it depends on things, how you adapt, he's one of the good, talented players of the academy, he has scored many goals, that's why we understand the loan was the perfect scenario for him, but unfortunately with the long-term injury first we need to recover his fitness levels and then he can play football again."

Who would you let go in the January transfer window if you were West Brom?