Lewis Cox and Jonny Drury bring you a West Brom update - after Carlos Corberan's departure to Valencia was confirmed.
The Spaniard, who took over at Albion in October 2022 with the Baggies sitting second bottom, has joined the La Liga club after they activated a release clause in his contract.
Lewis and Jonny discuss the bitter blow Albion have been handed ahead of the festive schedule - and look back at Corberan's time at the club and the legacy he leaves behind.
The Spaniard, who took over at Albion in October 2022 with the Baggies sitting second bottom, has joined the La Liga club after they activated a release clause in his contract.
Lewis and Jonny discuss the bitter blow Albion have been handed ahead of the festive schedule - and look back at Corberan's time at the club and the legacy he leaves behind.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Baggage fans, welcome to Expressenstar.com for this West Bromwich Albion update. On Christmas
00:14Eve, as you're all looking forward to opening some banging presents on Christmas Day, Albion
00:20have been delivered. Well, you could call it what you want, a festive body blow as we
00:25all now know that Carlos Corberán is set to leave Albion and head to Valencia after
00:31agreeing to become the new head coach of the La Liga side. News first emerged late on Monday
00:39evening and now Corberán is heading back to his homeland after just over two years
00:46at the Hawthorns. Coxsey, it was the news or the developments that I'm sure Albion fans
00:54were dreading for quite a while. Arguably all through his tenure at Albion, he's been
00:59linked with other jobs and they've only intensified the more it's gone on. But it's hit boiling
01:03point and a job that he just could not turn down.
01:07Yeah. Happy Christmas, Johnny. Merry Christmas. Christmas nightmare, I guess, for the very,
01:17very large majority of Albion fans and the club. I would say, look, this is, you summed
01:24it up really, Johnny. This is a body blow, hammer blow for the club. Timing aside, I
01:30mean, timing's disastrous. I think that's fair to say from a PR perspective. To be honest,
01:36from a perspective of just starting a run of five games in 14 days or all of that kind
01:41of stuff, it's all go right now, isn't it, with the schedule. But even aside from that,
01:47you know, Albion didn't want to lose Carlos Corbijn. Clearly, I've written several times
01:54the ownership book of football. We're huge supporters, admirers of him, his methods,
02:00his desire, passion, everything good he brings to the club and has brought to the club. What
02:05I would say, and this is moving on a little bit and probably too early for that, but for
02:10the days ahead, you know, we've had, as you said, several links, haven't we, for some
02:15time for clubs. And I've written today, you know, quite often with these things, there's
02:22no smoke without fire. And again, suggested several times that the people that work with
02:28Carlos, representatives, allies of him in the media, whatever, will have been behind
02:35some of these links, not just here, but overseas. And that suggests, you know, some sort of
02:43desire to get him what their parties believe is to be a move upwards, a better move.
02:49And now, obviously, look, a move up to the Premier League, be it with whoever, you know,
02:55has been linked, Everton, West Ham, there's been so many, hasn't there? But more recently,
03:00Leicester, Southampton, Wolves, they would have all stung. Burnley, obviously, Leeds
03:04been mentioned in the Championship. But I think when the name Valencia emerged yesterday,
03:09after Valencia revealed the sacking of their previous manager, Ruben Baraja, it was just
03:16like, whoa, this is the second bottom of La Liga. You know, ironically, Albion was second
03:21bottom of the Championship two years ago. But Valencia is a Spanish superpower, historically.
03:27And it's also the town where he was born, where all of his family reside. You know,
03:33I just think, you know, yes, I know, in recent years, hence them being second bottom of that
03:37financial, a bit of a nightmare, as far as I understand and have read. But how can you
03:42turn that down? You know, realistically, how can you turn that down?
03:46Albion is and remains and will continue to be a difficult job. Despite Bilco's takeover,
03:52despite the welcome saving from Bilco, from Gauchan Lai, it will remain difficult because
03:59of the financial restrictions of the rules and regulations of FFP. And that's another reason
04:08why, for me, Corbijn was doing a good job. You know, he had a good squad, yes. And some of it
04:12was underachieving and there were faults. I think we all know that and have written about that.
04:16But he was still working in difficult, difficult background, you know, with to a point a hand
04:23tied behind the back. We know about the shelling of the wage budget. So I'm a little bit just
04:28looking ahead. It's it's an attractive job for someone, I'm sure. But it's still not
04:32a smooth, straightforward, guaranteed top six job. So let's see. But going back to the original
04:38point, Johnny, it's it's it's not a merry Christmas, is it? To say the least, you know, we
04:45obviously Albion go to Derby. We'll be there in a couple of days, what, 48 hours now.
04:49You know, we'll be getting ready to leave for Pride Park.
04:53Yeah, just, you know, I was at the press conference on Monday, Johnny, Monday,
04:59kind of lunchtime-ish, a few hours before the Valencia reports in Spain started to emerge.
05:05And there's so much covered about the period, about a corner having been turned, about the
05:13really positive bright prospects of DK, his recovery ahead, about the most Carlos Corbijn
05:18has said about the January transfer window, you know, stuff ahead. Don't get me wrong.
05:24He would have been aware, I'm sure, by that press conference of the sacking over there and
05:30the potential that this is going to open up for him. But he spoke and he addressed that work
05:38like it was Albion, you know, talking and planning for January. So
05:41but I mentioned Bilco and because of the sort of incessant links of late
05:47and them being proper owners, tuned in, aware of the landscape, aware of how the sport,
05:55football works, this continent, obviously they've got experience of that in Italy and such,
06:01due diligence and their future planning, future proofing will have been
06:05gone on for some time, or almost you could argue as soon as they got in the door with
06:09their feet under the table. You know, they're seeing where's Carlos' contract, he's so highly
06:13rated, there's a lot, you know, his stock's high, there's going to be interest likely.
06:18So they'll have long had plans for a replacement, for drawing up lists. And now is the time, sadly.
06:27It's just sad. You know, I realise most, if not all, baggage fans watching this will be sad.
06:32Personally and professionally, I'm really disappointed. Had a really strong,
06:36good relationship and I'm sad to see him go. But it's also,
06:39um, it is a wonderful job for Carlos Corbijn, sadly for Albion.
06:44Yeah, it certainly is. It was kind of the day that we were,
06:47kind of a lot of us were fearing, obviously there is a section of the fan base who,
06:52who may probably not celebrate, but be sort of happy Albion are maybe on, you know,
06:56what they are going to be making a change with Corbijn now, leaving the football club.
06:59But it's the playing style debate, isn't it?
07:01Yeah, that's what it's a little bit down to. But when you look back at his time at Albion,
07:05you know, we've written a lot of column entries, you know, you know, late into the night on there,
07:10on Monday, weren't we, preparing for the inevitable. And when you look back at his
07:15run and kind of when he came in at Albion, you know, lost the first game, went bottom,
07:19they then won 10 out of 13, won seven out of nine after the World Cup break,
07:24if you cast your mind back to 2022. Any fears of relegation were banished. They were all,
07:31they almost snuck in the back door of the playoffs at the final moment.
07:35You know, he had a difficult summer, could only bring in three players,
07:38one of them who hardly played at all.
07:40Only one permanent, yeah, yeah.
07:42Only one permanent, yeah, one who only left in January and one who hardly played at all. Then
07:46he kind of, you know, struck a bit of gold in that January, you know, then he's got like the
07:50Tom Fellows coming in the team and then they almost got in the playoffs, had that great start
07:55to the campaign, then obviously a bit of a tricky run, you know, and then, you know, kind of leaves
07:59Albion in a very good position. You know, there are a lot of, a lot of things we could cover,
08:06but, you know, we want to go and celebrate Christmas as much as the Albion family.
08:09Well, yeah.
08:10Looking at, it's when you look at his achievements, you know, collectively,
08:14he's done really, he's done exceptionally well for Albion. People will say he's had a big wage
08:17bill and he's had one of the best squad. Yeah, he had a big wage bill, but he inherited that and,
08:22you know, I think Albion squad was maybe overinflated in terms of the money that they'd
08:25spent certainly on the Gouch and Lye, you know, he's done it under the backdrop of such
08:30financial restrictions. You know, you look at the individual stories as well in Corbran's kind of,
08:35kind of reign, you know, introducing Tom Fellows, you know, and firing him into that. Yeah. All
08:41right. The Albion Academy had got taken an awful lot of credit, but, you know, Corbran saw him,
08:45give him his chance. He's turned around Alex Mowat, turned him into arguably the best midfielder in
08:49the division, turned Cedric Tipper into the best centre half of the division. He's currently turned
08:53Colin Grant into one of the most informed attackers in the division. Furlong, you know,
09:00Bartley and Furlong were arguably, you know, Bartley more than Furlong, finished before
09:04Corbran come in, you know, almost instantly turned around Bartley's fortunes, you know,
09:09so that the job that he's done at Albion, you cannot be underestimated. And I just think the
09:16mark, I kind of penned this when I was looking at doing a piece yesterday, I think the mark of
09:20not just a football club, but in all walks of life, whether it be a business,
09:25the mark of the job of someone at the top or a boss has done is whether he leaves the building
09:31and leaves, in this case, a football club in a better position than the one that he found.
09:36And there is no denying that Albion are in such a better position than the one they were back in
09:42October 2022 when Corbran walked through the door. Yeah, all well said. Yeah. I mean, obviously the
09:48club are generally because of the takeover as well. But the point is, for a long part of his
09:53two years, two months in charge, you know, as head coach, Corbran had to operate, you know,
09:57in the lie, the back end of the lie era when parachutes had dried up. You know, you mentioned
10:03the, you know, right to mention the size of wage bill he inherited. But he'd been restricted by
10:10that realistically, hasn't he? You know, players on long, big contracts that clubs haven't really
10:15been able to come in for. Obviously many left last summer. We expect, I expect similar next summer,
10:23to be honest, as the club continues to recover financially, that will now obviously be under
10:28a different head coach. But you bang on, Johnny, there are so many facets of
10:32the management and some may scoff. I've seen one or two, you know, it's exaggerated how bad we were
10:39under Bruce, all of that. I remember doing videos with you, Johnny, at the back end of Bruce.
10:44And, um, you know, not, not only were we sort of, um, in an hour and about
10:50no parachute payments in the championship, you know, it was a very real discussion about the
10:54third division. Um, and it was like, you know, it would have been, you know, surely, you know,
10:59almost certainly it would have been falling off a cliff territory for the football club,
11:02wouldn't it? Like, you know, and, um, but Corbran put that to bed so quickly and,
11:07you know, came in with such a big reputation and just delivered on it in my eyes.
11:11Um, let's see, let's remember, I don't think we should forget last season's championship,
11:16you know, the top three, the calibre of it, the top three, if not four clubs,
11:21certainly the top three into 90 points. And the fourth was 89 Southampton, you know,
11:26and Albion were, were rightly fifth the whole time. Um, and just not enough power to get
11:31off the back of them. But as I've written recently, I think it was amid the Southampton
11:35interest, the way you could organise and set up a side.
11:38Albion under him were always in games, weren't they? They were never soundly
11:41beat and swept off the park or seldom. Uh, always felt like you had a chance. And yes,
11:47you know, we've said throughout the piece, haven't we? Not, maybe not the most free-flowing,
11:51attack-minded, free-scoring, you know, chance after chance after chance. He detested basketball
11:56games, didn't he? Um, but Albion always knew they'd be competitive. And this season, yeah,
12:02I asked him only Monday, you know, you were about to face Derby, the 23rd game of the season,
12:06the halfway point you faced every club. What has it told you about the division now? And he said,
12:11look, just that tight and competitive and equal it is. And the draws have proven to that,
12:15how Albion have drawn more than they've won this season. They found it difficult to win
12:18the season. But he said, we are very competitive because only three clubs have beaten us.
12:23And, um, you know, amongst those are Sheffield Wednesday back then, weren't, weren't they? And,
12:28um, obviously Middlesbrough and more recently Watford. So he, yeah, look at the league table,
12:34look at the club as a whole, the club are in so much of a better position now to make a decision.
12:39Uh, I touched on the first answer about it being a more attractive job. Um, and that should provide
12:45a bit of hope going forward. But at the moment, Albion fans would just be feeling, um, feeling
12:51sad. I think that, that, um, the Spaniard wasn't quite able to finish the project and have another
12:59go and maybe a better go at the playoffs. Um, but I do, I do have a nagging feeling that, and again,
13:05I've written this sort of sense that this has felt for a little bit now, like when, not if,
13:10and as, as the links have come up, it's like Southampton to me felt stronger,
13:15felt more plausible from information we'd had. And then as soon as this one came up,
13:19you know, it felt a bit obvious, didn't it? A club like that for Carlos. But, um,
13:24so, so there, there, there was for a while, but like it was on the cards, Johnny. Um, but it just,
13:29it hasn't made it any easier. I don't think for, for Albion fans to swallow or stomach
13:33and a bit of concern, a bit of unease now. Um, or a lot of it really among most of the
13:38supporters that were, you know, he, he, he was loved here, wasn't he? By, by the fans, you know,
13:44King Carlos, Don Carlos, almost from the first weeks, the records you spoke about the way it
13:50continued more or less continued in a, uh, if not upward trajectory, then, you know,
13:57maintaining that even keel of being a promotion battling side amid takeover concerns at mid
14:04is the club going to be sold? Right. You know, FFP often sustainability laws that are going to
14:10still be a big concern moving forward for the new ownership. And he had them all, you know,
14:16in that top six as a force throughout, um, as a competitive one. And I think that's a superb job.
14:21I've written in a comment piece today that hopefully people have had the chance to read
14:25by now. We're just a little bit unsure at what point pieces are going to go out, aren't we,
14:28Johnny? But, um, that, you know, when Corbyn was appointed, Albion were near their lowest step
14:34as a club. I think the darkest days in the club's history. Yeah. There've been some lower points in
14:38the pyramid and stuff going back before our lifetimes, previous generations, but people
14:42were fearful about the club's future, weren't they? Because of ownership mismanagement and
14:46he had to come in there. And yes, you know, there was some players on big money, but not all of them
14:51were helpful. And, uh, I think he's done a superb job and one that will be remembered now or should
14:58be remembered now, but will be remembered in history as one of the club's more important
15:01modern day or managers ever. And one that did a fantastic job.