Ron Gourlay’s West Brom football board to include all departments on transfers
West Brom chief executive Ron Gourlay plans to create a “football board” to cooperate on transfers, and a head of football operations, The Athletic reports.
The former Chelsea man announced the plans this week to overhaul the behind the scenes structure at the club, in what is one of his first major moves after arriving and appointing Steve Bruce as manager.
Under the proposals, there will be wide input on Baggies transfer business, including from admin staff.
Steve Madeley writes in The Athletic: “Gourlay appears determined to develop a more collaborative approach to recruitment and football strategy, and that means canvassing a variety of opinions before big decisions are made.
“The idea, to borrow a favourite phrase of [former chairman, Jeremy] Peace’s, is to “de-risk” transfers as much as possible.
“Gourlay will chair it, but will seek opinions from the first-team coaching staff, the academy, recruitment department, medical team and administration staff.
“Each are likely to get their say on potential new signings in terms of how they affect their own department.
“It is likely that Albion will appoint a “head of football operations”, reporting to the football board and charged with overseeing the sporting side of the club.”
Wait and see
While it is positive to see plans to restore the workings of the club back to what might be considered the Dan Ashworth glory years, it seems to carry a risk of overdoing it.
Giving everyone their say on transfer feasibility sounds like a sensible idea, but it implies a lack of trust in those whose job should be focused on that.
The system it is trying to emulate put a lot of responsibility on Ashworth, and it will likely be important to find a similar figure.
Considering some of the decisions that have been made in bringing the club to the point it’s at currently it’s clear that there needs to be a more coherent strategy.
This attempt to bring that about is commendable, and if the right people can be put in place to operate it properly the club is sure to benefit.
The wrong people are more likely to become too many cooks spoiling the broth and nothing will get done.
In other West Brom news, a bold Steve Bruce suggestion left the talkSPORT hosts aghast.
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