West Brom expected to officially announce Chris Wilder as new manager very soon
West Brom are expected to officially announce Chris Wilder as their new manager “very soon”, according to Sky Sports.
As reported by Sky Sports’ Transfer Centre on Thursday [06:01pm], the 53-year-old is set to replace Sam Allardyce as manager of the Baggies after positive talks.
Wilder has been out of work since March after a five-year stint at Sheffield United was ended by mutual consent.
Step one almost complete
West Brom are – yet again – facing a rebuild this summer.
Not only has the board had to appoint a new manager, they’re also losing a lot of players with all four loanees from this season departing.
Conor Gallagher, Okay Yokuslu, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Mbaye Diagne were all key players during their time in the Black Country but it doesn’t seem likely that any of them will stay.
On top of that, Sam Johnstone and Matheus Pereira have been strongly linked with moves away from The Hawthorns and it was confirmed on Thursday that a number of players are also leaving at the end of their contracts.
Kyle Edwards, Hal Robson-Kanu, Charlie Austin, Kamil Grosicki, Lee Peltier, Branislav Ivanovic and Andy Lonergan are leaving, which leaves Wilder with a mess of a squad to inherit in the summer.
When all these exits are taken into account, West Brom have just three central midfielders to choose from.
Jake Livermore, Romaine Sawyers and Rekeem Harper have all had disappointing seasons and none of them were that great for us in the Championship either.
Wilder’s first job as manager will be to use whatever funds he has to address the serious issue in the middle of the park because Albion’s permanent central midfield options have been woeful for a long time now.
In other West Brom news, Kevin Phillips has shared his instant reaction to the news Wilder’s appointment is close.
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