Scott Minto has credited Slaven Bilic for the excellent job done at West Brom, and says that they're capable of running away with the Championship.

The Croatian took over at the Hawthorns after the Baggies failed to secure promotion last term under Darren Moore and James Shan.

Bilic took over at a difficult time for the Championship side but had rebuilt the team to one which is sitting top of the league with just one defeat in 16 games so far.

While the campaign will be a long, gruelling season, the Sky Sports EFL presenter has backed Bilic to guide West Brom to glory with his newly-built side.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Minto said: “The biggest signing that West Brom made was Slaven Bilic.

“To get a manager like Bilic into a Championship club – first of all it shows the size of West Brom, secondly it gives great kudos to the standard of the Championship and the EFL, and thirdly to get him in and lose Jay Rodriguez and Dwight Gayle which was 45 goals between them and still be at the top end of the table is incredible.

“Recruitment has been crucial so you have to give credit to Luke Dowling, the director of football because he will have been under pressure at the end of last season after not going up.

“To bring in the likes of Matheus Pereira, Grady Diangana and Romaine Sawyers; Charlie Austin, I think, will be a very good signing and he’ll come on strong in the second half of the season – but you look at the strikers who haven’t really scored, for Bilic to be getting West Brom to average over two points a game and score 29 goals when you’ve lost two key players is incredible.

“They’ve only lost one game which suggests that they might be a defensive side, but they’re absolutely not. They’re an attacking side who like to play football.

“They play a possession game at home and away from home they can play on the counter. They’re just a side who look ready for anything."

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Minto added: "While on paper Fulham and Leeds probably have the strongest teams, I think if you give it another 10 or 15 games you could be looking at West Brom plus one to get promoted. They’re looking that good.

“It’s still early days at the moment but Pereira, Diangana and Sawyers have added stardust to what was already a very good side.

“Once the strikers start scoring, it could be them plus one.”