West Brom likely to announce Valerien Ismael appointment today
West Brom are likely to confirm the arrival of Valerien Ismael as their new manager today, according to the Express & Star.
Albion’s move to hire Ismael, 45, calls an end to what has been a protracted search to find Sam Allardyce’s successor that has seen Guochuan Lai pull the plug on a deal for Chris Wilder, David Wagner opt for Young Boys over the Baggies and Luke Dowling also leave The Hawthorns.
It is understood that the Black Country club has agreed to pay a £2million compensation fee to take Ismael from Barnsley while in the last 24 hours, contracts have been thrashed out for the Frenchman and his incoming backroom staff.
West Brom will be paying a compensation fee to take a manager away from another club for the first time since 2009 when Roberto Di Matteo was hired from MK Dons.
It signals a change of approach from the Baggies, who have seen their search for a new manager brought to an end by chief executive Xu ‘Ken’ Ke.
It remains to be seen why exactly Dowling left The Hawthorns last week but Lai’s decision to veto a move for Wilder and the transfer chief’s poor recruitment means there were plenty of reasons for him to move on.
Either way, Ken has pulled through and just over a week after Dowling’s exit, a compensation fee has been paid – albeit deducted from the summer transfer budget – and a deal has been all but agreed.
Ken hasn’t messed around and while most West Brom fans are resentful of the Chinese ownership of the club, we have to pay credit to the chief executive for jumping into action straight away to hire a manager who’s had the golden touch in the last few years at Barnsley, who he led to the Championship play-offs, and LASK, who he took to the Europa League knock-out stages.
In other West Brom news, this Albion youngster has been spotted signing a deal with Chelsea.
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