OPINION
West Brom fans will surely be thrilled to know that the club has reportedly made progress in talks with Slaven Bilic as they aim to appoint him as their next permanent manager.
According to the Express & Star, Albion held more negotiations with Bilic, 50, on Monday and while a salary is yet to be agreed upon, there has been forward movement in those specific talks.
It is understood that the former West Ham and Croatia manager is the current favourite for the job at The Hawthorns, which is no doubt great news for West Brom due to his experience in English football and the lack of quality in some of the other candidates that have been mentioned.
Of course, some of those other candidates have dropped out of the running because Baggies chief executive Mark Jenkins has found it difficult to reach an agreement over wages.
The West Brom chief, who is known for his shrewd approach to deals, has found wages an issue with Bruno Labaddia [Sky Sports] while Chris Hughton would have to take a major paycut from his previous job at Brighton to be hired by Albion [Express & Star].
West Brom’s manager search has been going on way too long.
They sacked Darren Moore in March and James Shan’s duties as interim manager ended after the play-off semi-final defeat to Aston Villa, which was almost a month ago.
In that month, the Baggies have narrowed down their shortlist and have finally started to make a bit of progress in their talks with Bilic.
However with each passing day they are losing out on precious time in the summer transfer window where players need to be sold and players need to be bought or loaned in.
West Brom’s squad returns to pre-season training in the next few weeks and by then, Jenkins had better have appointed someone to finally succeed Moore in the Hawthorns hotseat.