West Brom: Shilen Patel can learn from ‘ludicrous’ Birmingham City situation at The Hawthorns
Shilen Patel could learn from the decision by Birmingham City to appoint Wayne Rooney after completing his takeover at West Brom, according to Dan Bardell.
Albion confirmed on 28 February that the American businessman had acquired Guochuan Lai’s 87.8 per cent shareholding at The Hawthorns.
Patel has taken over as the club’s new chairman as he looks to help support Baggies manager Carlos Corberan in his bid to achieve promotion to the Premier League this season.
Although Bardell believes Patel is grateful for the work the Spaniard has done at West Brom, he added that the Florida-based entrepreneur would be best to avoid the situation the new Birmingham owners landed themselves in following the “ludicrous” appointment of Rooney.
Speaking exclusively to West Brom News, the Sky Sports journalist said: “The mismanagement that’s gone at West Brom and Birmingham is completely unacceptable.
“As always with these things, it is the fans that get punished. You’re helpless as a fan because all you can do is turn up and watch your team. You’ve got someone as a custodian of your club who is completely letting you down, making bad decisions, it’s just not on.
“I’m glad they’ve got someone else in. I think time will tell whether they’re a good owner or a bad one. I think that depends on the decisions you make.
“Probably some lessons can be learned from the way Birmingham handled things when they were taken over in the summer. They had a good thing and they were going in the right direction, but they sent themselves completely back by making the ludicrous appointment of Wayne Rooney for John Eustace.
“It’s a slightly different situation at West Brom because I think they’re grateful for the job Carlos Corberan has done. I think realistically they’re punching above their weight at the moment, he’s got them in a really good position.
“It’s just about whether they want to go up now or do they want to wait another season and kind of do it the right way with the new ownership and not go up too soon, forcing them to do too much business. I think sometimes that happens with Championship teams.
“It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but the important thing for West Brom is that nightmare period with the ownership is over and they know they’ve got the right manager.
“They’ve got to hold onto him, help him build and they’ll hopefully go up in the near future.”
Shilen Patel must keep hold of Carlos Corberan at West Brom
There is no questioning the job Corberan has done at West Brom under extremely difficult circumstances since walking through the door in October 2022.
As Bardell points out, the situation Birmingham have landed themselves in after appointing Rooney wasn’t pretty and it’s certainly something everyone will be keen to avoid at The Hawthorns.
Although there shouldn’t be any concerns about the Spaniard being let go by the new Albion chief, the bigger fear will be around how the club will be able to keep hold of him should they not get promoted this season.
In other West Brom news, Corberan has raved about what a Baggies chief has done behind the scenes.
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