Manager loses job despite West Brom’s City draw
LONDON • Slaven Bilic yesterday became the first managerial casualty of the Premier League campaign after West Bromwich Albion fired the Croatian after 18 months in charge.
A club statement read: “West Bromwich Albion have today parted company with head coach Slaven Bilic.
“Albion would like to thank Slaven and his coaching staff for their efforts in achieving promotion last season and wishes them all well in the future. The club will make no further comment at this time.”
According to multiple British media reports, Sam Allardyce is set to take over as the short-term manager for six months. The former England boss has not coached since being sacked by Everton in May 2018, while Bilic led the Baggies to promotion in his first full season in charge,
West Brom managed to garner a surprise 1-1 league draw at Manchester City on Tuesday, but the point was not enough to keep Bilic in the job.
They remain second from bottom on seven points with one win in 13 games, leading City manager Pep Guardiola to curse their inability to put away the lowly visitors, who cancelled out lkay Gundogan’s opener via Ruben Dias’ own goal.
The hosts remain out of the top four and the Catalan is worried the two points dropped could prove costly in their bid to regain the league title.
“It is not about the points (off the top), you have to win games like this,” said Guardiola. “We know it, we drop points. These are the ones you have to win.
“It’s not far away to the top of the league but you have to beat West Brom at home. You don’t have to be so clever to see the gap between this year and previous years (in our results). It is not confidence, Sergio Aguero is injured for four months, but we create chances, we are there, we just can’t score.”
However, Gundogan blamed the congested calendar, saying: “All over Europe, all the big teams are struggling with the tight fixtures and it’s not going to be easier in the next weeks. That’s an explanation why it is not always as easy as the expectations people have for us. We are not machines but we also know when we have not played our best game.”
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS