Darren Moore makes his feelings very clear on his time as West Bromwich Albion manager

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The Baggies legend was controversially sacked by the club when they were fourth in the Championship table.

Darren Moore has spoken of his time at West Bromwich Albion, in conversation with Sky Sports News, stressing that the club was at “rock bottom” in terms of confidence.

He also says he knows he made the club better from when he began his tenure as manager, taking over from Alan Pardew, to when he was relieved of his duties earlier this year.

When Moore took the reins at The Hawthorns, initially on a caretaker basis, in April 2018, the team was bottom of the Premier League, 10 points from safety with six games left (BBC Sport).

Under his leadership, West Brom went undefeated in April, a run that included a 1-0 away win against Manchester United which saw the league title to Manchester City, and Moore picked up the Premier League Manager of the Month honour.

Although top-flight survival was unfortunately a bridge too far between when Moore took the reins and the end of the campaign, he brought pride back to the West Brom fanbase and, the following season in the Championship, he had the Baggies challenging for promotion.

However, due to a bad run of home games in the latter stages of the season, he was sacked in April (BBC Sport), a decision which proved controversial amongst some fans and pundits.

“I knew what the club needed,” Moore told Sky Sports News. “They needed attacking football. The club was at rock bottom, lower than a snake’s belly in terms of confidence. And I am sure I will never have a summer like that in terms of the work involved in having to realign the club. We had to settle everything down and prepare for a tough Championship campaign. That was so difficult to do but we did it.

“The mentality had to change and anyone that knows football knows that to change the mentality of a group takes time. We didn’t have that time but we still managed to do it. So much hard work had gone into it and it’s one of the hardest things to do for a team to drop out of the Premier League and bounce straight back. We were in with a chance. When I look at West Brom when I joined and West Brom when I left, I know that I made it better.”