West Brom new manager: Slaven Bilic will ‘100%’ want job amid Corberan bombshell
Slaven Bilic will be keen to return to West Brom once Carlos Corberan vacates the manager’s hot seat at The Hawthorns, according to Chris Lepkowski.
Writing via his personal X account on Monday night (23 December), the former Birmingham Mail journalist reported that Bilic, 56, will be “100 per cent” interested in the job with Corberan, 41, widely reported to be close to joining Valencia.
Fabrizio Romano has reported that Corberan will be appointed as Valencia’s new manager on Christmas Eve after the La Liga club triggered his £2.5million release clause at the Albion.
Lepkowski believes ex-Coventry manager Mark Robins will be an “inevitable candidate” to succeed Corberan in the Black Country and that the job might come too soon for Tony Mowbray after his recent health issues.
It is understood that former Baggies boss Bilic would be “very interested” in a second spell at The Hawthorns after he was sacked in December 2020. However, it remains to be seen if Shilen Patel and Andrew Nestor would be keen on the passionate Croatian.
Who will be the next West Brom manager?
Corberan’s office isn’t empty yet but it does seem a lot like the Spanish has managed West Brom for the final time.
It’ll be the first time in 12 since when Roy Hodgson left the Baggies to take on the England job that an Albion boss has moved on from The Hawthorns because someone else wanted him.
That’s a mark of how good Corberan has been for the club, especially since Hodgson left in 2012.
Bilic is one of the 10 permanent managers who have come and gone since Hodgson’s spell with the Croatian being sacked by the club in December 2020 after a poor start to the 2020/21 Premier League season.
He was dismissed, rather unfairly, after a 1-1 draw away at Manchester City but the writing was on the wall for the ex-West Ham manager for a long time as he almost botched automatic promotion and struggled to work alongside Luke Dowling to get the squad ready for the Premier League.
Should Albion take him back? Probably not.
It’s good that he’s keen but there’ll surely be better candidates out there who’ll want to pick up where Corberan is leaving off.
In other West Brom news, Albion could have a problem with Josh Maja after a big update on Corberan.
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