Danny Higginbotham has slammed the West Brom owners’ lack of understanding of how the Championship actually works after they sacked Darren Moore.
Higginbotham says that the second tier “is such a tough league these days”, and believes that if the owners had understood this fully, then Moore would still be the Baggies’ manager.
He admits that some owners think that they have every right to be promoted straight back to the Premier League after being relegated, and says that throwing money at the situation does not help matters at all.
“Darren Moore paid the price for the powers that be at West Brom completely underestimating the Championship. After being relegated from the Premier League, some owners believe they have a God-given right to go straight back up,” he said in his Sun column.
“But that’s not how it works and it just shows they don’t have a good enough understanding of the division. It’s not as easy as just throwing money at it — you start the season with a hangover and it can be a real shock to the system.
“Moore was doing a good job and West Brom still have hope of going up via the play-offs. But one of the biggest issues Moore faced was having to adapt to playing a different style of football. The Championship is such a tough league these days — the whole dynamic of the club has to change — and if West Brom’s chiefs had grasped this quicker, Moore could still be in a job.”
OPINION
It was no doubt a surprise to a few fans that Moore was sacked from the West Brom hotseat. After all, it is not like the club were on the brink of relegation was it? There is still a great chance for them to be promoted, and there still was when Moore was given the push. Higginbotham is right though – the owners underestimating how tough the Championship actually is, is what has caused them to get rid of Moore. The clubs think that it will be easy to get promoted at the first time of asking, and as he points out, this is not always the case. There are times this season where the Baggies have found it tough, something which was especially evident in the 4-0 loss to Leeds a while ago. They may have felt that sacking him would boost their chances of promotion, but that prospect seems even less likely now.