With West Bromwich Albion sacking head coach Darren Moore recently and the appointment of Jimmy Shan as caretaker gaffer, the club appear to be somewhat stuck.
Whatever your thoughts about the decision, given our league placing and current form (and taking off the unrealistic expectation goggles when it comes to the squad) the only thing that made sense was we already has a replacement lined up.
That now appears to have not been the case with Shan expected to maintain his role for the weekend’s game against Brentford.
Clearly, the overriding decision to sack our club legend came from the financial elements of no longer being in the battle for automatic promotion, but if the press favourite Slavisa Jokanovic wasn’t our target, given how Moore initially brought the group together, the fans will get more irate if Shan can’t keep his own winning run going – and that’s unfair on Shan.
It’s difficult to disagree with Sky Sports Pundit Clinton Morrison who told Soccer Special (13/3 – 7.42).
“It’s a strange decision, it don’t sit right with me to be fair. I don’t know what’s going on with the hierarchy, I think Darren Moore did a terrific job – he was so close to nearly keeping them in the Premier League. He did ever so well, the players responded to him, the fans responded to him and I don’t think they wanted to give him the job. I think it was fan pressure, more pundits and people saying give him the job. I know it was only one win in nine but losing Harvey Barnes was a massive blow, he didn’t really bring in a replacement for him but it’s just not right.”
The financial instruction from the Board over the summer was cheap free agent deals, and loan deals and we all know the reported targets Moore wanted that we failed to get over the line. So whilst acknowledging his struggles as he learned on the job, a Board demanding promotion (where the Play-Off spots) are deemed a failure is a touch unrealistic when Moore couldn’t get his first choice targets in.
You could almost say it’s like looking for a scapegoat and passing the blame.
With no new manager presumably lined up, and Shan appearing to be a realistic candidate – could he be the next scapegoat?
