Bigger costs at play than compensation for West Brom sacking of Steve Bruce – Finance Expert
We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive West Brom columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns...
Dan Plumley has insisted that bigger costs would have been on the mind at West Brom compared to the compensation needed to sack Steve Bruce.
The Finance Expert admitted while still unlikely, relegation to League One would have cost £7million in revenue alone, not to mention the loss through attendance potentially slipping.
Bruce was shown the back door at The Hawthorns on Monday (10 October) after yet another week went by without a win, this time a 0-0 draw with Luton Town.
“You’re looking at the compensation fee is going to incur a cost,” he exclusively told West Brom News.
“What was going to be the bigger cost? In terms of tangible and intangible, you absolutely don’t want to drop out of that league, so that’d cost you another £7million in revenue, so that’s a factor.
“There’s the wider narrative that comes from the fans who are unhappy with the manager and performances which has an effect on attendance so everything comes around full circle. Weighing up the cost from a compensation point of view, but the bigger cost are the implications of performance on the pitch and where West Brom want to get back to, so, no surprise when you see these things.
“These conversations will have happened behind the scenes, yes, they have had to pay a fee, but in the grand scheme of things, is that fee worth it? The answer is yes.”
It was very toxic at The Hawthorns over the weekend, and the entire fan base made it clear that they didn’t only want Bruce gone, but Ron Gourlay and the board too.
Instead, the latter will now look out for another manager to bring in, with the potential of paying more compensation to get a boss out of their current club too.
One thing for sure, the writing was on the wall for Bruce for weeks, let’s hope things start looking up now.
In other West Brom news, this Welshman is now in line to takeover at The Hawthorns as list is now drawn up