Nick Ware

Sat 19 June 2021 10:10, UK

West Brom are ‘confident’ that they can make Valerien Ismael their next manager, according to The Yorkshire Post.

The 45-year-old was heavily linked to The Hawthorns on Friday, with The Telegraph’s John Percy reporting on his personal Twitter profile that talks between West Brom and Barnsley, Ismael’s current team, were ongoing, with the recently-relegated Premier League side prepared to pay his £2million release clause.

Now it looks like they could get their man, with The Yorkshire Post claiming that Albion are “confident about the prospect of being able to lure him away from Oakwell”.

We’ve heard this before…

Chris Wilder, Michael Appleton, David Wagner…we’ve lost count of how many managers the club have been ‘confident’ of appointing since Sam Allardyce announced he was leaving the club last month.

There’s been a lot of sitting around and waiting without any real action, so we aren’t counting our chickens on this one just yet.

One would hope that a lot of the potential blockers to this deal have now been removed.

One was technical and sporting director Luke Dowling, who was reportedly not a fan of what he perceived to be a direct style of play implemented by Ismael at Barnsley.

Dowling has now left the club, so that possible hindrance has been taken out of the equation.

Furthermore, our apparent reluctance to stump up a compensation fee seems to have dissipated.

Now all that remains is Ismael’s stance and demands.

He would surely favour a move to a bigger club who are likely to have more ambitions than his current side, so if his financial and staff demands can now be met, there appears no reason for a move to break down.

After some of the recent names linked to the club, Ismael is surely one of the better ones.

In other West Brom news, this is why Xu Ke has overruled Luke Dowling’s decision on a prospective Albion boss.

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