Explained: Why West Brom made the decision to cut short Josh Griffiths' Portsmouth stay following loans at Cheltenham and Lincoln

The West Brom boss said it was the Baggies’ desire to work more closely with the 21-year-old that prompted his recall.

The Spaniard added now was the time to get the keeper fully adapted to the Championship side’s way of playing following three loan spells away from the club.

Griffiths, who signed on a season-long loan in the summer, returned to the Hawthorns this week following 28 games and eight clean sheets for the Blues.

It leaves managerless Pompey with just Josh Oluwayemi as their only senior stopper, with interim head coach Simon Bassey admitting a replacement for the now departed West Brom ace would not be arriving in time for Saturday’s League One trip to Bolton.

The Blues have been weighing up suitable replacements following the surprise move. But that’s not Corberan’s concern as he also aims to increase competition for places within his first-team goalkeeper ranks.

When asked about Griffiths’ return ahead of his side’s game at Luton tomorrow, the former Huddersfield boss told Birmingham Live: ‘We have strengthened the squad by adding him (Griffiths) to the group of players.

‘He's someone who is young, he had the first part of the season in Portsmouth, having the experience of games in League One and having it in the cup – the last game was at Tottenham away, that was a very good experience.

‘Now we understand, talking to the goalkeeper coach (Gary Walsh) and talking with the club, that now is the moment to bring him back, to be in the dressing room, to allow me to work closely with him, to know him better. It's one thing to watch him on the TV, but it's another thing to have the human contact with the players.

‘We have strengthened the squad by bringing him back to the club, because he is someone that maybe has played the minutes well enough, now we need to give him a different type of experience that is going to allow him to grow in a different situation.

‘You grow when you're playing, when you're adapting to the needs of the team, Portsmouth were playing in one way - we are now going to try and develop our style and to allow him to have the contact with some of the behaviours that we have here.

‘It'll help him to keep growing, even if he doesn't have the minutes that he was having previously.

‘The same situation happened with Alex Palmer last year. He came back in the second part of the season and he was working - sometimes it's a positive for the future of the player.’

Griffiths will compete with Palmer and David Button for a place in the West Brom team and match-day squad.

However, there’s no guarantee the former Blues loanee will be adding to the game time he had at Fratton Park this season.

‘My idea right now is to not change any of the situation, there is no reason to change anything,’ added Corberan.

‘We are going to strengthen the goal, we are going to move the keeper who was a third keeper with us out on loan (Ted Cann) and we will have now the option to have three very good goalkeepers.

‘That is what I see now in front of us. Three very good keepers that I want to increase the work I do with them.

‘I want to increase the work day by day, because increasing the competition is something I only see as a positive.’