West Brom are still on the hunt for a new manager after having given Tony Pulis the sack after the club’s recent loss to Chelsea. The sacking was on the cards but it now raises the question of who will fill his boots? The Baggies had to react to a big slump of form and they will have looked at other teams for inspiration. Crystal Palace got their first points of the season after bringing in Roy Hodgson after sacking Frank de Boer; Leicester have climbed the table well after sacking Craig Shakespeare and replacing him with Claude Puel and West Ham are still waiting to see how things pan out with David Moyes after sacking Slaven Bilic. Everton have no clue what they are doing after sacking Ronald Koeman.
So change can certainly be a good thing, but who do West Brom replace Pulis with? Slaven Bilic has counted himself out of the job and the firm money keeps going down on the Midlands club turning to Alan Pardew. The club have apparently been in talks with Pardew all week since the sacking of Pulis but if they are going to turn to him, it seems to be taking quite the time to get him in the hot seat. If he was a sure fire thing and a great fit for the club, surely he would have walked straight in the door and shook things up.
So that hesitation has left a little wiggle room in the Next West Brom Manager market and punters have been piling in on Craig Shakespeare making what would be a surprise move. He temporarily took over from Claudio Ranieri at Leicester as the former Premier League champions struggled last season and did a handy enough job to get the full-time gig. But things didn’t pan out for Shakespeare this season with the Foxes floundering and struggling to pick up wins. That short time with Leicester is the only previous managerial experience that Shakespeare has.
But he was trimmed massively from 33/1 to 6/1 towards the end of last week to take over at the Hawthorns and that’s big market momentum. So where has the Shakespeare link come from? It is because of the man’s links with West Brom. He used to play for West Brom back in the early nineties and he was actually a caretaker manager for one game in 2006 after the club had shown Bryan Robson the door.
But are West Brom ready to take a gamble on a relative rooky though or go through the risk of a tumultuous and rollercoaster ride that would surely follow if Alan Pardew walked through the gates? It is a pretty interesting managerial race and it doesn’t look as if the club are looking in any kind of a new ambitious direction with them having been linked to Sam Allardyce, Bilic, Pardew and now Shakespeare. It looks as if they are looking more for consolidation of limited resources and ambition.
Gary Megson has stepped into the current void at the Hawthorns before the club locks down a new manager. He is a 25/1 option to get the job full time. The Baggies have winnable matches coming up following their clash with Tottenham with Megson in charge, as they then face Newcastle, Palace and then Swansea in the first half of December. It gets tougher them for the rest of the month with games against Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal all being squeezed in before the end of the year. They have to make the most of the forthcoming easier fixtures. Who will guide them through it?
Top Tip: The links to Shakespeare are tenuous and while he impressed as caretaker manager with Leicester, the Baggies could just stick with their own man in the very same role in Gary Megson and he’s not a bad option to go with. He has managerial experience, knows the club and isn’t afraid to make changes. He’s a very good fit. If not, him then it should be Pardew all the way.