Steve Clarke new favorite to become WBA manager

Walked away from Liverpool at the 2nd attempt.

Sky Sports News
SKY SOURCES: West Brom set to name Liverpool's former assistant manager Steve Clarke as Roy Hodgson's replacement within next 24 hours #SSN

I think Steve deserves this. I was sad to see him go. I thought as they worked together at Chelsea that he would stayed, but Rodgers would obviously want to take his own staff, including an assistant manager.

I think Steve would have been offered a new role but as it would have been a step down, he rejected which I fully understand.

I imagine he also wants to be a #1 after years of being #2 under some great managers.

Wish him all the best and was sad to hear he'd left Anfield.

Could be a very good appointment. Has served as a number 2 for a number of years now and has a lot of experience.

They went for the cheap option in my view. They all but had Hughton, but didn't want to stump up the £2 million compensation for him and his backroom staff. Now we have him

West Brom never went for Hughton. They had interest but he was never their #1.

davidl1061 wrote:Could be a very good appointment. Has served as a number 2 for a number of years now and has a lot of experience.

This could be the problem though. Some coaches are just meant to be in that number 2 role. Remember Sammy Lee?

We put all our eggs in the Rangnick basket, so this is a bit of a disappointment in comparison.

However, I think he could do a good job considering the reputation he has in the game, at multiple clubs not just one.

He is a great coach no doubt about it. But there is a big difference between being a coach and a manager. Will he be a great manager? Only time will tell, I hope for WBA sake he is. They took long enough to find him eh Mat

Confirmed

I really thought WBA would be able to attract, or at least, go for a pretty high calibre and proven manager. An established, well run Premier League club is not an attraction these days I take iit!

I think this could turn out to be a very astute appointment by West Brom, he's had a great record in most places he has been in terms of how they are set up defensively. I imagine it's trying to carry on the work of Hodgson so bringing in another guy famed for his organisational skills is a good move.

Disappointed that he left Liverpool, but understandable as it seems to be so he can make the step up to management.

What high calibre and proven managers are available.

West Brom have made pretty smart managerial moves lately, their last 2 managers are now the current CL winner and England manager.

Graeme Swann's Cat wrote:What high calibre and proven managers are available.

West Brom have made pretty smart managerial moves lately, their last 2 managers are now the current CL winner and England manager.

I agree that their last two appointments have been good (Di Matteo was unlucky to be sacked)...It just seems strange that Hughton apparently turned them down. Who's out there? Good question and I'm not sure. Liverpool seemed close to take a gamble on Martinez, so surely West Brom is a step up from Wigan? Is he proven? Well as a manager, then yes. I'm a big fan of Clarke, being part of Mourinho's title winning teams but I think it's a very big risk for West Brom

I don't think Hughton ever had the chance to turn them down. Never their #1.

Its a gamble yes, but hes had as good an education as anybody. We'll see.

I'd guess that if he doesn't hit the ground running he could be out of a job by Christmas. Jeremy Peace doesn't strike me as the patient kind.

But as GSC says time will tell.

I think I'll do a bit of explaining:

Essentially, Albion follow a different model to any other Premier League club at the moment. We don't have a manager, we have a "head coach" whose role is exactly that-he does the day to day coaching, picking the side, tactics, subs ets.

More of the administration stuff is done by Dan Ashworth, who is our sporting and technical director and very highly rated in the game. He's also generally in charge of transfers. Clarke will say I want a Striker, Ashworth will have a list of about 10 strikers-scouting reports, dvd's the lot and show them to Clarke, who may also recommend someone who Ashworth would then compile similar data on.

So that tended to rule the usual names out of our job, the likes of Curbishley, Bruce etc. Martinez is unwilling to work within such a system, Hughton wanted to bring in a head scout who he worked with which would have messed up our system that has worked so successfully.

Ralf Rangnick was first choice, much more high profile than Clarke and worked in a similar system in Germany but alas he turned us down, so I don't think Clarke, particularly as a coach rather than manager, is a bad choice.

Having said that, it's not gone down too well with the fans for the most part so he's going to have to hit the ground running as FreekShow said. Peace seems to have finally developed a trigger finger after years of backing the manager to the hilt.

Probably down to desperation to stay in the Premier League.