Kevin Phillips reacts as West Brom plan major behind-the-scenes shake-up
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips will support West Brom if they opt against hiring a replacement for Luke Dowling after he quit the club last week.
According to Football Insider, the Baggies are set to adopt a more traditional approach to recruitment and not appoint a new sporting and technical director to succeed Dowling.
It has been widely reported that the Albion are on the verge of appointing Valerien Ismael as their new manager [John Percy, Telegraph].
And it seems as though the Frenchman might be left to work alongside the recruitment staff still at The Hawthorns this summer to work on a squad that has been ravaged by expiring full-time and temporary contracts.
The Telegraph claims West Brom “will be competitive” in the transfer market and “intend to target at least four quality additions” to the squad.
Funds will be raised from selling Sam Johnstone and Matheus Pereira and ex-West Brom striker Phillips is happy to trust the next Hawthorns manager to take full control over who joins and who leaves.
Speaking to West Brom News, he said: “Whether there’s a director of football involved or not, I’ve always said that at the end of the day, the manager should have the final say.
“The manager should go to the director of football with a list and say, ‘these are the players I want, now go and get them for me’. It’s as simple as that.
“That’s how I feel a director of football should work, it shouldn’t be the other way around with them giving a list to a manager.
“They can be good because you can bounce stuff off the director of football so it goes to the chairman and it saves you from pestering the chairman so you can concentrate on your job.
“I think ultimately, when it comes to signing players and letting players go, the manager should have complete say on it because I’ve said before, if it goes wrong there’s no one else to blame and if it goes right, the manager takes full credit.
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
In other West Brom news, this Albion youngster has been spotted signing a deal with Chelsea.
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