West Brom boss Darren Moore draws on promotion joy as player
Darren Moore plans to draw on all of his experience of being promoted out of the Championship as a player next season.
Albion’s head coach may be new to management, but he won promotion into the Premier League four times as a player.
The former centre-back went up twice with Albion under Gary Megson, as well as once with Bradford and once with Derby.
And the 44-year-old is confident that experience will stand him in good stead for the upcoming season.
“It is an extremely difficult league and I am drawing on all my experiences as a former player having succeeded four times myself on getting out of this division,” he said.
“I’m calling on all those experiences and know-how and I know inside me what is ahead of us.
“There are lots of hurdles ahead of us so it’s important we get a team here ready to tackle a gruelling season ahead.
“There’s 24 teams, 23 others outside ourselves all vying for promotion. You’ve seen what the Championship is like and I don’t need to tell you what is ahead of us.”
Moore won automatic promotion with Bradford in 1998/99, before helping Albion go up in 2001/02 and 2003/04.
In 2006/07, he was playing for the Derby side that beat the Baggies in the play-off final.
“It’s one way of going up but it is probably the best way of going up if you can do it at Wembley through the play-offs,” said Moore.
“It’s a special occasion, certainly for the winners anyway. I’m very fortunate to have experienced that.”
Moore is predicting a ‘busy’ summer in the transfer market, and he wants all of his new faces to be coming to The Hawthorns for the right reasons.
Albion have been stung recently by marquee signings who have arrived on inflated wage packets but failed to live up to the hype.
“I can’t speak on the past but it is absolutely right that any players brought in will be to improve the squad and to be part of the football club,” he said.
“Anyone brought in, first and foremost, it will be about the character of the individual as a human being.
“Yes individuals make up a team but it’s the team that counts and hopefully in the weeks I was in charge you saw that.”
