Latest news with #AndrewNestor
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
A waiting game but a worthwhile one?
It's been a month since Albion sacked Tony Mowbray after a dismal defeat to Derby on Easter Monday put paid to their play-off hopes. The thinking behind the swift decision just hours after the game was to give the Baggies a head start in the recruitment process. The only problem is that since then, several clubs have also begun searching for new bosses, including Championship rivals Norwich, Hull and Watford; the latter of whom have already filled their vacancy.A small section of Baggies fans are getting impatient as time ticks by but the Baggies ownership group, Bilkul, know they must get this appointment right. Sporting director Andrew Nestor favours an analytical and statistical approach to finding the right person and that takes time to pour over and there's plenty of due diligence to be done on the character of candidates no surprise to me that the search is approaching the final days of May. Playing the waiting game has allowed the club to watch the managerial merry-go-round unfold and explore their options. If they'd have rushed the appointment, a more suitable candidate may have become available after the event. It could be argued that the appointment of Mowbray was rushed after the plan to appoint Swiss head coach Raphael Wicky collapsed but that's an old Baggies' aim is to mould a model where they can recruit players to fit a certain system, and the head coach does their work on the training ground, so arguments that the club need a manager quickly for recruitment reasons are largely unfounded in this day and age. However, the next head coach will want to get their feet under the table soon to begin planning for pre-season and figure out how they can craft a team that can compete for promotion again. The hierarchy have done a good job of keeping genuine rumours to a minimum this time, which has perhaps caused some of the impatience, but we could now be approaching the final days of the search and hopefully fans will have reason to be excited for the next campaign.
BBC News
06-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
From 'perilous' position to 'pipeline of talent'
West Bromwich Albion sporting director Andrew Nestor says the club are in a much healthier position in terms of satisfying English football's profit and sustainability rules than they were prior to their change of ownership almost a year former Bologna director and Tampa Bay Rowdies president was chief executive of Bilkul Football Group, Albion's owners, when he took on his Albion role in mid-August, two weeks before the close of the summer transfer he described Championship club Albion's PSR position when Bilkul took over in late February from Guochuan Lai as having been "perilous"."We are continuing to strategically navigate this situation," he said, "whilst remaining competitive in the league and investing in the club's future through the decisions made in these last two transfer windows. "The average age of the squad weighted for minutes played was the oldest in the Championship and the fifth-most expensive."We have since been assembling a cohesive squad built around a more offensive-minded style of play. We have reinvested in key players that were already here, as well as new impact acquisitions and several top players under 21. The average age has been reduced and we have created capacity to continue future investment."Our squad planning model is centred around creating a mix of peak-year performance players in the 23-25 and 26-29 age categories, and young developing U23 talents. This can enable the club to compete at the highest level, but also develop players and optimise trading opportunities."We believe the squad adjustments made in the past month help us tremendously as we seek to adopt a more attack-minded playing style, create a pipeline of top young talent, and simultaneously reinforce the squad."The overarching strategy for 2025-26 is in place and, behind the scenes, we have aligned and bolstered our scouting and data capabilities."
