[BalisPen]

If it is Rene Hale, I will save my love.

He's not one I want, but I will back him if he gets it.

Still hoping, against hope for Cooper.

[hardtobeat]

It will be interesting to see how long the contract is for the incoming boss

[ex coseley kid]

If it is Rene Hale, I will save my love.

Good one, you have to be the right age, but good.

Please let it be Wicky, stats sound far more encouraging.

[zippyandbungle]

It will be interesting to see how long the contract is for the incoming boss

Six pages of standard A4 😃

[alex1]

It's probably completely unfair but to me there's something Pardewish about him, hope I'm wrong if it is him.

I'd be fully confident he'd be trying to get us playing attractive attacking football, and that he'd be a hands-on coaching trainer. The question is, would he have the personality to get through to the players. I've never heard him speak, in Dutch or English. 

[mulliganstired]

I'd be fully confident he'd be trying to get us playing attractive attacking football, and that he'd be a hands-on coaching trainer. The question is, would he have the personality to get through to the players. I've never heard him speak, in Dutch or English.

We could get Steve McLaren to translate

[BalisPen]

I'd be fully confident he'd be trying to get us playing attractive attacking football, and that he'd be a hands-on coaching trainer. The question is, would he have the personality to get through to the players. I've never heard him speak, in Dutch or English.

It's difficult for them and only Billy Bass has previously achieved this feat.

[baggie96]

I think the 3rd candidate is Schumacher

[Fritzl Palace]

I think the 3rd candidate is Schumacher

Not sure I’d fancy him, was never the same after the skiing accident 

[boinging_along]

Not sure I’d fancy him, was never the same after the skiing accident 

Would still be better than Pardew.

[tommcneill]

Percy at the back post!!

Taken from his Twitter:

Excl: #wba are in advanced talks with Raphaël Wicky as they move closer to appointing a new head coach. Former Young Boys manager Wicky is West Brom's preferred choice and while negotiations are ongoing his arrival could be confirmed in days.

[tex]

If we done have a new coach by the start of the week this will be concerning. Stoke, Middlesboro, Portsmouth in a 7 day period. We should be setting the direction for the back half of the season this month. it will also be approaching a month since Corberan left.

[tlms-p23]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2025/01/10/west-brom-talks-to-appoint-raphael-wicky-manager/

Looks like it will be Wicky

[robnewbold]

Percy at the back post!!

Taken from his Twitter:

Excl: #wba are in advanced talks with Raphaël Wicky as they move closer to appointing a new head coach. Former Young Boys manager Wicky is West Brom's preferred choice and while negotiations are ongoing his arrival could be confirmed in days.

Please let this be the case.

[Dan87uk]

Percy at the back post!!

Taken from his Twitter:

Excl: #wba are in advanced talks with Raphaël Wicky as they move closer to appointing a new head coach. Former Young Boys manager Wicky is West Brom's preferred choice and while negotiations are ongoing his arrival could be confirmed in days.

Just to back that up:
https://x.com/JPercyTelegraph/status/1877733081366352130

The Perce has spoken!

[BAGGIE5]

anyone got the full article?

[phbaggies]

anyone got the full article?

Doesnt say much

West Bromwich Albion are in advanced talks with Raphaël Wicky as they edge closer to naming their new head coach.

Wicky, the former Young Boys and Basel manager, has emerged as West Brom’s preferred choice after impressing the Championship club in talks this week in London.

A former Switzerland international, Wicky is a free agent after leaving Young Boys in March last year despite leading them to the domestic Swiss double in the 2022-23 season.

Wicky, 47, is understood to have held detailed discussions with West Brom’s board in meetings this week and an appointment is thought to be close.

West Brom are seeking a new head coach after the departure of Carlos Corberán to Valencia was agreed on Christmas Eve.

Carlos Corberan left West Brom after 26 months to take charge of Valencia, La Liga’s 19th-placed side Credit: Diego Souto/Getty Images
With the club’s sporting director Andrew Nestor leading the recruitment process and relying heavily on data and analytics, Wicky would fit the profile for the Albion board.

Like Corberán, Wicky is renowned as a coach first and foremost who can work in a modern football club structure.

During his spell with Young Boys, he helped develop a number of players who were sold for a significant profit including Fabian Rieder (£12.5 million to Rennes) and Aurèle Amenda (£7.5 million to Eintracht Frankfurt).

Since Corberán’s surprise exit last month, West Brom have lost only one of their four matches under caretaker Chris Brunt and are currently sixth in the Championship table.

Corberán’s successor will be the first managerial appointment for Albion’s chairman Shilen Patel, who completed his takeover at the Hawthorns in February last year.

Wicky is thought to have moved ahead of Liverpool first-team coach John Heitinga and former Manchester United coach Rene Hake.

In a recent post on his X account, Patel wrote: “I can’t say enough about how the entire club has shown up during an intense and trying festive period.

“The professionalism, resilience, and endurance shown by our players, coaches, employees at all levels speaks to the love and respect that they have for @?WBA and our fans.”

West Brom return to action on Saturday with a trip to face Premier League club Bournemouth in the FA Cup. They do not return to Championship duty until the visit of Stoke City on Jan 18.

[baggies_24]

Well just goes to show how tight my hunches are considering I thought Hake was getting the job an hour ago. Got to say I’m excited about Wicky his record everywhere he’s been other than Chicago is very promising.

[johnny Cash]

I don't know much about either Hake or Wicky, but based on what I have read I'd much prefer Wicky. 

[gazberg]

Certainly left field and not a name expected in day 1.  Wit Wicky would have been my preferred choice after Cooper.

Fingers crossed both sides get it sorted for Monday

[LiamTheBaggie]

I have never heard of him so I look forward to seeing what he can do 

[koren]

https://youtu.be/9YmRRLc73Ac?si=RERlNzln6HPDMgnR
The positive thing is he won't have language barrier here.

[gazberg]

https://youtu.be/9YmRRLc73Ac?si=RERlNzln6HPDMgnR
The positive thing is he won't have language barrier here.

Speaks better English than me 

[Dan]

Seems a more interesting candidate than Hake at least, which really would have been scraping the bottom of the barrel, but its hard to put his career into context.

At least at Basel, the season before he came in they won the league, but finished 2nd with him - having won the league 8 times in a row - and then he was sacked, though they haven't won the league in the 6 seasons after he left and indeed got progressively worse so hard to contextualise that.

At Chicago he seems to have just done flat out bad, though it seems they pretty much always do badly.

At Young Boys he won the league his first season and had them top when he was sacked, having finished 3rd the season before he came (though they did win the league 4 years in a row prior to that season. This season they are currently in 9th so doing very poorly.

So a mixed bag but at least with some good successes also in his last job, which is probably as good as we're going to get from the names left available.

[BaggieBoy04]

In reality it has only been a week yes Football doesn't switch off but Secretary's, People who do the behind the scenes stuff that play a smaller role would have only returned to work this week, so in reality it has been a week to actually get this done, West Ham can't be compared nor Wolves as both had wanted to sack there managers before they did, yes we could have prepared to lose Corberan but Agents do things all the time maybe to get there client a better deal or better conditions, considering Carlos had turned down Southampton and Wolves we probably thought he would stay. We then had to negotiate Compensation with Valencia before we could start our search, presumably we were waiting for the money to hit our account before we pressed ahead

Whoever the new manager is I back them and welcome them to the Albion