OPINION
West Brom fans are surely baffled by news that the club is hoping to appoint the next permanent manager by the end of June.
According to BBC Sport, Albion expect to have a new head coach in charge by the time the first team squad returns to pre-season training, but surely that is way too late into the summer and Mark Jenkins and Luke Dowling need to get Darren Moore’s successor into The Hawthorns by the end of next week at the latest.
West Brom have been without a permanent manager since March when Moore was harshly relieved of his duties.
It is understood that a move to hire Alex Neil as his replacement was scrapped after the Scot penned a new deal with Preston, leading to James Shan being handed the reins until the end of the season.
Shan failed to win promotion to the Premier League in temporary charge of the Baggies, and that means there is likely to be a major overhaul of the squad in the summer.
James Morrison, Gareth Barry, Boaz Myhill, Tyrone Mears and Wes Hoolahan are to be released while Rekeem Harper is also approaching the end of his contract and looks destined to leave for a minimal compensation fee.
Dwight Gayle, Mason Holgate, Stefan Johansen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Jefferson Montero and Jacob Murphy have all come to the end of their loan spells and have returned to their respective parent clubs.
West Brom’s squad is down to the bare bones and the situation is likely to be made worse with players like Craig Dawson, Ahmed Hegazi, Kieran Gibbs, Jake Livermore and Jay Rodriguez bound to attract attention from Premier League clubs over permanent transfers.
If this situation is not sorted out as soon as possible then West Brom could be leaving things too late into the summer to complete what is bound to be a massive change in the squad.
And there is no point in doing that until a manager has been hired, because someone like Bruno Labbadia may want to sign and sell different players to Chris Hughton, and vice versa.
If another month is wasted trying to hire a new manager then that is also a month wasted of overhauling the squad, and that could leave the first team in tatters by the time the 2019/20 Championship season kicks off.
That cannot happen and Jenkins and Dowling need to get real and hurry up this process.