West Brom comment: Luke Dowling has big shoes to fill
It was quite apt that on the same day Luke Dowling was appointed, Dan Ashworth returned to club football.
Ashworth’s shadow still looms large at The Hawthorns, six years after he left for the Football Association.
Albion’s new technical director acknowledged that straight away in his opening message to Baggies fans.
“If you go back seven or eight years, Albion were looked at as the club to be replicated,” said Dowling. “Albion were ahead of the game.
“Outside the top four, as it was then, the remit was to work ‘the West Brom way’. That’s a big compliment and we want to try to get back to that as best we can.”
When Ashworth held the role Dowling now has, he helped the Baggies win promotion to the Premier League before consecutive finishes in 11th and 10th caught the attention of the FA.
Shrewd recruitment and expert negotiating made the Baggies as streamlined as they could possibly be, maximising their resources and potential by unearthing gems.
Since then, Albion have lurched from unsuitable candidates like Richard Garlick and Terry Burton to the disaster that was Giuliano Terraneo.
Sandwiched in between them was Nick Hammond, who held the post the longest.
Sidelined for most of his time by head coach Tony Pulis, when the first big decision came round, he failed spectacularly.
Advising the board to appoint his long-term friend Alan Pardew eventually cost him his job.
Albion’s Chinese owners appointed Terraneo on a short-term basis after that, but he was quickly ushered out the door due to differences with chief executive Mark Jenkins and head coach Darren Moore.
Jenkins and Moore were leaned on heavily in the summer window, almost dangerously so, considering one is a chief executive and the other is just starting out in management.
It was an unsustainable situation that needed support.
The positive aspect of this appointment is that Dowling has three months before January rolls around, which should be plenty of time to get acclimatised to the club and even implement a few of his own practices.
The fact he knows Moore from their time at Blackburn can be seen one of two ways.
On a positive note, the two most influential men to on-field performances have a prior working relationship that they are willing to re-kindle.
But on the flip side of that coin, Albion have been burnt recently by their technical director and head coach being too close.
Ashworth’s decision to join the other Albion shows how far his old club has fallen in comparison to an upwardly-mobile Brighton backed by Tony Bloom’s millions.
The Baggies have never properly replaced Ashworth, but in Dowling they hope to have found the next bright thing.
One thing’s for sure, he certainly has big shoes to fill.
