Ron Gourlay blasted by former Reading colleague, West Brom CEO given scathing ‘financially it’s unbelievable’ verdict
Ron Gourlay has been heavily criticised by former Reading colleague Brian Tevreden, who called the West Brom CEO a “disaster” at the club.
The Baggies chief spent 16 months in Berkshire between 2017 and 2018, before arriving at The Hawthorns in February last year following the sacking of Valerien Ismael, immediately appointing Steve Bruce.
But his time at Reading was an unhappy one, and he was previously criticised by former owner John Madejski [Football.London, 4 December 2018], and has now been slammed by Dutchman Tevreden for his conduct, saying “financially it’s unbelievable”.
Speaking on the 1871 Podcast the former Royals technical director said (16 May, 11m 30s) chief executive Nigel Howe’s exit: “Biggest mistake, biggest mistake. Nigel was there for years… and he supported me massively.
“If I have to put him next to Ron Gourlay, it was a disaster for the club. I’m professional and don’t want to talk a lot about him too much, but it was a massive mistake to get Nigel out of the club.
“You could see it already when he left, and Ron came in, people left the club…
“When I came into the club I worked with and developed people within the club, why should I bring people from outside if they don’t know the club?
“That was the difference with me and Ron. Ron came in and kicked everyone out and made things difficult. It was a big mistake when they got Nigel out…
“Ron Gourlay wanted to sit in my chair. That was the difference. He made the calls on renewing contracts for players and then after a year cancelled the contracts, financially it’s unbelievable.
“The other thing is he brought players in on big wages. That was not my idea, and I was not happy with that. I can go on and on.”
Concern
That verdict won’t inspire much confidence among West Brom fans for the way things are run at The Hawthorns unless Gourlay has learnt from his mistakes.
Perhaps it was just the wrong fit at the wrong time, but with Tevreden’s specific issues on top of Madejski’s previous criticism it doesn’t paint the Baggies CEO in a great light.
He would no doubt argue his case against that assessment, but his first move to bring in Bruce last season proved to be a disaster as well.
Thankfully he rectified it before it was too late during the current campaign by replacing him with Carlos Corberan, but with the play-offs ultimately missed late on and the club facing a very worrying financial future in light of the most recent accounts, he is going to need to avoid anything that could be termed financially unbelievable.
Amid the off-field concerns there is a likely need to sell players this summer, making Corberan’s task far harder going forward.
So Gourlay in charge of the day-to-day running is going to need to be on top of things in a crucial period. His move to bring in Corberan, and then extend his deal in the face of interest from Leeds, has proven an excellent pair of decisions, so more like that and fewer like what he is accused of at Reading will be in order.
In other West Brom news, Guochuan Lai “car crash” used as marker to measure dysfunction at other clubs by finance expert.