West Brom are in “surprise” talks with Troyes manager Rui Almeida, according to beIN Sports correspondent Tancredi Palmeri.
The reliable journalist claimed via his personal Twitter account on Friday that Albion have already had a meeting with Almeida, 49, and the Portuguese boss has now made their final shortlist.
How do you say West Bromwich in Portuguese?
WBA in talks with surprise candidate Rui Almeida from Troyes for managerial role.
Meeting already took place and he is in final shortlist.
Finished 3rd in Ligue2— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) June 7, 2019
Almeida has previously been manager of Red Star Belgrade and Bastia.
He is currently in charge of French side Troyes, who finished third in Ligue 2 last season and, like West Brom, lost in the semi-finals of the promotion play-offs.
OPINION
Almeida is someone who West Brom fans are unlikely to have heard of but he is someone who has gotten around quite a bit in his career. He began his managerial career in charge of Syria’s Under-23s and has also held roles as assistant manager at Panathinaikos, Braga and Sporting CP. He failed to stop Bastia from being relegated from Ligue 1 in 2016/17 but has done well at Troyes and almost got them back into the French top-flight. Almeida can speak English but there are surely less riskier appointments than him who Mark Jenkins and Luke Dowling can settle on. Almeida might be a good permanent successor to Darren Moore, but it just isn’t worth finding out when Slaven Bilic, Bruno Labbadia and Chris Hughton are out of work and are less of a gamble. West Brom should really push the boat out for Bilic and ignore Almeida, who should not really be on their shortlist given how much of a left-field hire he would be.