Emile Heskey believes Chris Wilder is a ‘phenomenal’ manager and says West Brom could do a lot worse than to hand over the reigns over to the former Sheffield United boss, speaking exclusively to HITC.
The Baggies may have one foot and four toes in the Championship, with relegation from the Premier League feeling like an inevitability, but an immediate return to the second-tier is no disaster.
Just look at Norwich City.
After retaining the services of Emi Buendia, Todd Cantwell, Max Aarons and co, The Canaries are soaring back to the top-flight at the first time of asking.
And if West Brom can keep the likes of Matheus Pereira, Kyle Bartley and Sam Johnstone, there is no reason to believe the Baggies cannot do the same.
Then again, while Norwich have been rewarded for keeping the faith in Daniel Farke, West Brom may have no choice but to start, if not from square one, then from a position of some uncertainty.
The Athletic reports that there is a break clause in Sam Allardyce’s contract, one which will allow West Brom to part with the 66-year-old once relegation has been confirmed.
But, with Wilder on the market, it would be a major surprise if the Midlanders did not make the former Sheffield United gaffer their top priority if ‘Big Sam’ clears out his office.
West Brom showed an interest before opting to bring Slaven Bilic back to England in 2019, after all.
“What Wilder does do well is prepare players, create players and create systems that works. Last year, everyone was looking at Sheffield United in awe,” says Heskey, the former Aston Villa, Leicester and England striker.
It remains to be seen how Wilder feels about working within a different sort of structure at the Hawthorns. It is no secret that ex-West Brom boss Slaven Bilic fell out with technical director Luke Dowling due to divisions over the club’s recruitment (Mail).
And Wilder, like Bilic, is a man who demands rare levels of control in an era of string-pulling directors and powerful recruitment chiefs.
“Today’s football would be difficult for people like Chris, who probably want full-on control, whereas you have technical directors, sporting directors all these different people who have major says,” Heskey adds.
“But, if you feed into that, if you embrace it, it’s not a bad thing. We get stuck in this rut of thinking; ‘This is how it was for years, let’s stick with it’. But we’ve moved on now. We’ve seen the results of utilising the right structures.
“I think if Chris is able to get on board with that, you’ve got a phenomenal manager. West Brom are a very, very good club.”
In Jake Livermore, Semi Ajayi, Kyle Bartley, Karlan Grant and Matt Phillips, the Baggies have a backbone made up of proven, second-tier stars.
And Heskey believes that this will stand them in good stead as they look to emulate Norwich’s superb 2020/21 campaign.
“The good thing about West Brom is that they’ve got very, very good Championship players with an 80 per cent chance of bouncing back straight away. That squad will win the Championship.”
“The question is, when you bounce back, what do you do then? Do you change your team and get more established players for the Premier League? Or do you stick with the ones that got you up?
“As a manager, this is where you’re battling with at times.
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