"I'm very disappointed" - Reaction given to West Brom, Raphael Wicky update | OneFootball

FLW's West Brom fan pundit has given his reaction to the news that the deal to appoint Raphael Wicky as the club's new manager has collapsed.

This article is part of Football League World’s 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Former Young Boys boss Raphael Wicky will not be the next West Bromwich Albion manager after the deal for him to take over at The Hawthorns collapsed.

West Brom have been on the hunt for a new manager since Carlos Corberan departed to take over at Spanish side Valencia on Christmas Eve, and it was reported last week that they were closing in on the appointment of Wicky.

However, according to journalist John Percy, Wicky will not be named as Corberan's replacement, and the club are no longer in talks with the 47-year-old after he was "unable to assemble his preferred backroom staff".

Talks are now set to resume with other candidates, and it remains to be seen whether the Baggies will now turn back to Rene Hake or Tony Mowbray, who are both believed to have spoken to the club over their vacant managerial position.

Albion currently sit sixth in the Championship table, and unless they are able to make an appointment this week, Chris Brunt, Boaz Myhill and Damia Abella will remain in caretaker charge for the home game against Stoke City on Saturday.

West Brom fan pundit reacts as Raphael Wicky deal falls through

When asked for his reaction to the news that Wicky will not be taking over at The Hawthorns, FLW'sWest Brom fan pundit Callum Burgess admitted he is disappointed, and he questioned why the problem over backroom staff did not emerge earlier in negotiations.

"Personally I'm very disappointed to see that the deal for us to appoint Raphael Wicky has fallen through at a very late stage, especially over an issue about backroom staff," Callum said.

"You would imagine that this is something that would have come up during discussions to get to a stage where it had become advanced, I'm surprised this didn't come up sooner.

"You would have thought it would be something that was mentioned when discussions were first taking place.

"It had almost been going too well for Albion fans when it seemed that Andrew Nestor and Ian Pearce had done a very thorough search that led to us appointing a potentially decent manager in Raphael Wicky.

"I didn't have an extensive knowledge of him until the links emerged, but he did have a decent pedigree from his time at Young Boys, where he did the double.

"That did make Albion fans excited to see what plans he had in store for us, so it's all a bit disappointing to see it all fall through as he could have been a real coup for us."

Many West Brom supporters will likely share Callum's disappointment that Wicky will not be Corberan's replacement.

Wicky led Young Boys to the league and cup double in the 2022-23 season, and he had an impressive 58% win record during his two-and-a-half year spell with the Swiss outfit, so he would have been an exciting appointment for the Baggies.

Albion have won just one of their last five games in all competitions since Corberan's departure, and they suffered a comprehensive 5-1 defeat at Bournemouth in the FA Cup on Saturday, so owner Shilen Patel needs to end the managerial uncertainty as soon as possible, and with the club seemingly back to square one in their search, he is under pressure to find the right man.