Carlos Corberan fear at West Brom after Shilen Patel takeover admitted by Adrian Goldberg
Adrian Goldberg has admitted his “fear” at West Brom is that Shilen Patel might be tempted to put his own mark on the club at manager immediately after the takeover.
The journalist said on the special episode of The Liquidator (16 February) following the announcement of the US-based investor buying out Guochuan Lai that “you worry about” that possibility when there is a change at the top, especially after a report claiming Torino’s Ivan Juric was set for a contract offer from an American tycoon.
TuttoSport (12 February) indicated that the Croatian was in line for The Hawthorns, but the likes of John Percy at The Telegraph (15 February) have since reported that Carlos Corberan is safe in his job.
Goldberg said (13m 45s): “There was one report a few days ago. I have no idea about the credibility of this report suggesting an Italian [based] manager was being lined up to replace Corberan.
“That could be guff of course. It could just be newspapers making mischief or a manager or his agent talking out of line somewhere and seeing what’s out there.
“My fear though, and I’ve mentioned to this before, my fear is when new owners come in they often want to put their own mark on the club straight away and they’re tempted to meddle.
“I have no reason to believe, other than this one report, that that is what’s going to happen at Albion, but my message to Shilen Patel and to Kiran Patel would be, ‘Please don’t change anything in terms of the head coach of our club’.”
In response to hearing that UK reports had dismissed the Juric link he added: “So hopefully there is no truth to that rumour but obviously that’s the thing that you worry about.”
Carlos Corberan fears at West Brom admitted after Shilen Patel takeover
When the Italian report emerged it understandably set alarm bells ringing among the Baggies fanbase considering how important to the club Corberan has been, with Goldberg’s stance since echoed by Tony Brown.
Without him it seems exceedingly unlikely that West Brom would be in the midst of the play-off race, and when Steve Bruce looked to be steering the Albion into League One matters could be far worse.
It appears Patel doesn’t have plans to remove the Spaniard based on subsequent reports in England, which should come as some comfort, but until a new owner’s reign starts there is no way of truly knowing how it will manifest.
With Patel, who was in attendance at The Hawthorns for the 2-0 defeat to Southampton, there is no history of football club ownership from which to judge him.
Corberan’s performance in front of his new incoming boss was one of his most bizarre at West Brom, as he left Tom Fellows and Andi Weimann out of the starting line-up, then later substituted all of Jed Wallace, John Swift and Mikey Johnston when chasing the game without bringing on the Bristol City loanee at all.
He was also sent off for interfering with a ball that hadn’t quite gone out of play so it was hardly the greatest first impression even if he can be afforded some leeway based on his track record in charge.
His time at the club has to be taken as a whole, and Patel will surely have done so, so if the American isn’t set on bringing in his own man that is another key positive but Goldberg will be far from alone in being on edge at the possibility of unnecessary change.
In other West Brom news, Tony Brown was delighted by what one “delicious” Baggies player did despite defeat against Southampton.
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