Charlie Austin: West Brom board ‘should never’ have sacked Slaven Bilic
Slaven Bilic spent 18 months with West Brom after joining in 2019 but was sacked in his second season, right after leading the side to promotion.
Austin believes that decision to sack Bilic was a wrong move. The Croatian manager was the last to guide West Brom to Premier League promotion.
On top of that, his sacking was bizarre, with it coming just after a very impressive 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
Fast forward to now and the club are sat in the drop zone of the Championship after a dire start to the Championship campaign under Steve Bruce.
Austin – who spent two seasons at The Hawthorns – believes getting rid of Bilic will be a major regret of the West Brom board.
Following the club’s 1-0 loss to Preston on Wednesday evening, Austin posted on Twitter: “What is going on at West Brom they should be nowhere near the drop zone, I get it’s only October but seriously!”
After a response asked him for his opinion on the “bad ownership”, Austin replied: “Should never got rid of Slav”.
Regret
There’s probably plenty that the West Brom board regret in the past couple seasons. One of them potentially being Bruce’s appointment.
After spending years bouncing in and out of the Premier League, the Baggies look at risk of becoming stuck in the Championship and are even at risk of a relegation scrap this year if things don’t improve.
Bilic was the last manager to take the Baggies up to the top flight, and the 54-year-old boss has an excellent track record for earning Premier League promotion.
But West Brom instead opted with Bruce, and it’s an experiment that has ended terribly. What’s more, the Baggies board had a prime opportunity to sack Bruce in the latest international break, with Bilic out of a job and reportedly keen on a Hawthorns return.
However, the board were too hesitant and Bilic instead became Watford manager – another decision they may end up regretting.
Frankly, most fans at this point would just prefer anyone other than Bruce in the managerial hot seat, but Austin isn’t alone in missing Bilic.
In other West Brom news, Chris Lepkowski says West Brom have ‘rancid, horrible bunch’ in dressing room