With 17 games played in the Championship so far this season, only three outfield players have played more minutes than West Brom captain Jake Livermore, who has appeared in all but two of their league games in this campaign.

During those appearances, the 31-year-old, who is currently valued at £2.25m according to Transfermarkt, has played in the central-midfield and defensive-midfield positions, as well as grabbing an assist in their 1-0 win over Birmingham City back in October.

Despite being a regular figure for Ismael this season, Livermore is one of West Brom's oldest players and has a contract that's set to expire in the summer, which says to us that his time at the Midlands club could be coming to an end sooner rather than later.

With this in mind, the Baggies could already have their ideal long-term replacement for the veteran who has made a total of 172 appearances for the club, with 19-year-old midfielder Aurio Teixeira.

As a product of West Brom's youth academy, Teixeira has made 23 appearances and scored one goal for their U18 side and 12 appearances for their U23 side with one assist under his belt.

So far this season, Teixeira has made seven league appearances for West Brom's U23 side, playing as a central-midfielder, right-midfielder and as a right-back on occasions, highlighting his versatility.

Also, Teixeira has been described as being a "very intelligent footballer with a high football IQ", as well as being "tenacious in his game and another combative midfield player who uses his body well" by U18s manager Peter Gilbert, which should be very exciting for the Baggies fans to have a player such as Teixeira with those attributes in their youth ranks.

This could also make him a solid long-term replacement for Livermore given how the senior West Brom midfielder has had no issue showing his tenacity on the pitch, racking up a total of 33 yellow cards during his time at The Hawthorns as well as making an average of 1.9 tackles per game in the league this season.

Moving forward, if Teixeira can keep playing regularly for West Brom's U23 side, he definitely has the potential to start knocking on Ismael's door to get some minutes in the senior side to give himself the chance to show he has what it takes to play alongside the senior players and potentially go on to become Livermore's long-term heir.

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