Steve Bruce the early favourite to replace Valerien Ismael at West Brom
- News Feeds
- 2 February 2022
Former Newcastle United boss will be tasked with reinvigorating the Baggies’ fading promotion push.
Steve Bruce has emerged as the early favourite to take over at West Brom following the departure of Valerien Ismael.
The Sky Bet Championship club announced on Wednesday that Ismael had lost his job after just seven months in charge.
The Frenchman won one of his last seven games as the Baggies dropped to fifth in the table.
Ismael was appointed as Sam Allardyce's successor only last summer as the club sought to bounce back from relegation from the Premier League at the first attempt.
The 46-year-old former Barnsley manager got off to a great start at the Hawthorns, winning six of his first 10 league games.
However, with the club now 13 points behind leaders Fulham and eight points behind second-placed Blackburn, their hopes of automatic promotion are fading.
According to reports, former Aston Villa and Birmingham manager Bruce, who left Newcastle in October, is in discussions to take over.
The news came on an eventful day at The Hawthorns in which there were also changes at boardroom level with Ron Gourlay named as the new chief executive.
A statement from the club read: "West Bromwich Albion Football Club can confirm Valerien Ismael has today left his position as head coach.
"Assistant head coach Adam Murray has also departed The Hawthorns.
"The club would like to place on record its thanks to Valerien and Adam for their efforts and wishes them well in the future.
"The process of recruiting a new head coach is now under way and an appointment will be announced in due course."
“I was West Brom owner and after fans called for more attractive football, I decided that the only possible course of action was to sack my manager at the time and appoint Steve Bruce…” pic.twitter.com/ogaQGLarls
— Football Ramble (@FootballRamble) February 2, 2022
The decision underlines the importance to the club of returning to the top flight.
With the four clubs below them all within three points, further bad results could see Albion slip out of the play-off places.
Ismael's last match in charge was Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Millwall, their third loss in four games.
They do not have a game this weekend and are back in action when they travel to Sheffield United next Wednesday.
Ismael's departure coincided with the appointment of former Chelsea chief executive Gourlay as the club's new CEO.
The Scotsman, who has also held senior roles at Manchester United and Reading, joined the board as a consultant last year.
He succeeds Xu Ke and will take over the day-to-day running of the club while controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai will replace Li Piyue as chairman.
Gourlay said: "I am proud and honoured to be named chief executive officer of this historic football club.
"I am aware of the issues we currently face, but I am not one to shy away from a challenge, and I am confident that by making both positive and necessary changes we will, in time, have the club back on track."
Gourlay added that appointing a new head coach will be his "immediate priority" while "open dialogue with fans will play a key part in rebuilding trust".
