West Brom’s former technical director Luke Dowling had doubts about Valerien Ismael’s direct style of football as the club’s manager search continues with no end in sight, as reported by The Athletic.
It is almost a month now since Sam Allardyce announced his intention to jump from a sinking ship, leaping into the lifeboats as the Baggies clattered headfirst into an iceberg marked ‘relegation’.
Four weeks on, West Brom’s pursuit of a replacement manager has descended into a something of a farce.
While Tottenham, Everton and Crystal Palace have made finding a new manager look like hard work, that is nothing compared to the Baggies.
In fact, with just 20 or so days until pre-season training begins, West Brom have neither a head coach nor a technical director in place.
Who will be West Brom’s new manager?
Dowling walked away from The Hawthorns in acrimonious circumstances this week after Guochuon Lai, the club’s much-maligned owner, blocked a deal that would have seen Chris Wilder take Allardyce’s place in the dugout.
Having dragged Sheffield United from the third-tier to the brink of the European places in three years, all the while playing a complex, commanding and well-drilled style of football, Wilder was clearly the best man for the job in the eyes of Dowling.
Lai, however, had concerns about the way Wilder publicly criticised his Sheffield United bosses; an unsurmountable rift behind the scenes eventually leading to his departure from Bramall Lane.
According to the Athletic, Dowling had also considered a move for Ismael, the former Wolfsburg manager who turned an unfancied Barnsley side into play-off dark horses.
Ismael, however, would make Sam Allardyce look like Roberto Martinez, and the 45-year-old’s aggressive, ‘gegen-pressing’ style is understood to have put Dowling off.
Ismael proved hugely effective at Barnsley. But an expectant West Brom fanbase would be far more difficult to win over, especially when you consider the way many at The Hawthorns reacted to Tony Pulis’s brand of hoof-ball.
Where West Brom go next remains to be seen.
Lai has also allegedly decided against an approach for Michael Appleton, while David Wagner turned his back on West Brom last week to take over Swiss champions BSC Young Boys instead.
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