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Will West Brom ever have a new permanent manager?
For the moment, it seems like a never ending rinse and repeat cycle. This week, Technical Director Luke Dowling was reportedly set to speak with German boss Bruno Labbadia about the club’s vacant position.
But that wasn’t before Chris Hughton, Patrick Vieira, Michael O’Neill and Danny Cowley had all been thrown into the mix.
At this rate, the Baggies look unlikely to ever appoint a new boss.
The fact that Albion have essentially given themselves a deadline of having a new manager in place by the time pre-season starts at the end of June is evidence that their hierarchy don’t really have any clue what they’re doing.
This isn’t new, however. For many years they’ve flitted between managers at alarming regularity.
The sacking of Darren Moore now looks even more bizarre, with news of further delay tactics proving they never had a plan in place for when he was dismissed.
Given promotion was at stake, it was a clueless decision.
As the Midlands side now get set to embark on a second season in a row in the Championship, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d get their priorities sorted out.
Speaking to Labbadia showed that strides were being made. But if pre-season is the benchmark, it seems unlikely that the former Wolfsburg boss will actually be the man to walk through the doors.
Given the short window of opportunity now available to sign players, surely you’d want a new manager in as soon as possible? If they continue to delay, their player recruitment could also be hindered.
In truth, everything at the Hawthorns seems like a mess. The finances aren’t in the best condition and that’s clear in their inability to bring back Dwight Gayle.
That in itself was a damning indictment of where the club are, but the lack of movement that’s seemingly happening behind the scenes is alarming.
After so long without a permanent manager it’s baffling that Albion fans could have to wait another month before they receive clarity over their future.
As another cracking Championship season draws to a close, check out the top 5 fan chants from 2018/19 in the video below…
The longer Dowling waits, the more likely the club are to descend into mediocrity.
Yes, West Brom need to make sure they appoint the right man, but they’re in huge danger of not leaving any time to do anything else this summer.
Considering the rebuild that needs doing, any manager that does finally arrive will need as much time as they can get.
But there could well be a situation where the new manager is given just over a month to evaluate his inherited squad and bring players in – if the plan for next season is promotion, which it should be, it will begin with an incredibly rocky start.