West Brom lack respect for Moore’s magic touch

WHAT counts against darren Moore, apparently, is his experience. He hasn’t got any. Not when placed against dean Smith and Michael Appleton, the early front-runners for the West Bromwich Albion job next season.

And, true, Moore hasn’t got the best part of five seasons in League One with Walsall, like Smith, or a combined total of 27 games during stints at Blackpool and Blackburn, like Appleton.

He does have arguably the most remarkable run of results recorded by any manager in the Premier League this season, but that doesn’t seem to matter. From rock bottom, winning at Manchester United and Newcastle, beating Tottenham, drawing with Champions League finalists Liverpool, somehow isn’t enough to secure Moore his position permanently.

West Brom seem to be reading rather a lot into Appleton’s fine years with Oxford in tiers three and four, don’t you think? It makes you wonder where they believe they are heading, long term.

For the record, Smith and Appleton seem very capable managers. Neither, however, have anything like Moore’s current run anywhere on their CVs. Appleton knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup with Blackburn in 2013 and Smith recorded cup victories over Championship teams Nottingham Forest and Brighton in 2015-16 when Walsall were in League One, but these were anomalies.

What Moore has achieved at West Brom is a rare, if brief, level of consistency. They may be relegated tonight if there is a winner in the match between Swansea and Southampton, but while it will happen on his watch, Moore is the only one of three Albion managers this season who will emerge professionally unscathed.

Tony Pulis may have merited greater understanding but Alan Pardew’s reign was calamitous and it is a miracle that with six days of the season remaining West Brom’s Premier League status remains intact.

Yet the word from within right now, suggests Moore has earned a place on the new coaching staff, but no more. West Brom require experience next season.

Experience of what? Experience of consistently outwitting superior opposition, because neither Smith nor Appleton have that. Experience of the Premier League, presuming it is West Brom’s mission to return, because Smith hasn’t overseen one game there. Appleton’s elite managerial experience, meanwhile, amounts to three games as caretaker: a 3-3 draw with West Ham, in which West Brom led 3-0 at half-time, and two wins with Leicester, one of which was against a Championship club, Leeds, in the EFL Cup.

It is not as if West Brom are snaring Carlo Ancelotti. This is purely about games in charge. Yet if sheer volume mattered, then Pulis — 1,071 matches and counting — and Pardew, 822 games and unemployed, would have done a lot better this year than Moore, whose next game in charge will be his sixth.

Increasingly, for a young manager, getting a job is like the old conundrum around Equity cards. Actors couldn’t get an Equity card without working, but they couldn’t work unless they had an Equity card. That is how Moore must feel right now, hearing inexperience is holding him back.

How does he become as comfortable in the Championship as Brentford manager Smith, if West Brom don’t feel he is qualified to be a Championship manager? And if these final six games are without meaning, what was the point of them?

HAD West Brom gone down with a bullet, as expected, Moore would simply have been expected to slink back to an uncertain future amid the general staff, waiting for a tap on the shoulder and the announcement the new manager wants to bring his own people in.

Instead, he has exceeded all expectations, beaten teams West Brom were not expected to live with and all it qualifies him for is his old job? Respect is missing. The respect the club should have for what Moore has done, and what he could do, given the opportunity.

It is true that not all caretaker promotions work out. Malcolm Crosby earned a permanent role by taking Sunderland to the FA Cup final in 1992, but could not

inspire them beyond that, and left midway through the following season with the club facing relegation to the third tier.

Equally, Roman Abramovich was unconvinced by Roberto Di Matteo, despite his Champions League victory, but felt under pressure to award him the job anyway — his haste in getting rid of him when results flagged told its own story.

Most recently, Craig shakespeare turned Leicester around after the players had deserted Claudio Ranieri. He did not last long into this season, although that is more to do with Leicester’s board than shakespeare. He merely got a taste of Ranieri’s apples.

Against that, Chris Coleman did a decent job at Fulham, promoted from caretaker after succeeding Jean tigana; Glenn Roeder took Newcastle to seventh, as a temporary replacement for Graeme souness; stuart Pearce just missed out on Europe with Manchester City, before form started to crumble; while Garry Monk achieved swansea’s record Premier League points total: had they recorded it this season they would be where Burnley are now.

Of course, none of these terms ended in triumph, but that is the nature of the clubs. Nobody is expecting Moore (below) to lead West Brom into the Champions League either. More likely, even if he did well for a year or more, his reign would probably end in failure because, well, it’s West Brom and even if they came straight back it would be a struggle. that is what happens. Happened to Pulis. Would have happened to Roy Hodgson, eventually, had he stayed around.

For now, however, Moore is riding a wave. And how many waves have West Brom enjoyed of late? How many times have they known the feeling of a run like this? It was 2017 when West Brom last went five games unbeaten — but their opponents between January 21 and February 25 that year were sunderland, Middlesbrough, stoke, West Ham and Bournemouth, not three members of the Champions league elite, plus Newcastle away.

SO what more can Moore do? It will be said that he does not have experience in the transfer market, either, that he will not have awareness of the players West Brom need to get them out of the Championship. yet why wasn’t this a consideration when the club appointed Giuliano terraneo from Fenerbahce as the new technical consultant? West Brom must have had an inkling of where they were heading when terraneo was recruited in April. If the inside track on bargains at Burton Albion isn’t necessary for the technical director, why should it matter so much for Moore? Had the club not saddled itself with a complete novice in terms of Championship recruitment — previous posts include Monza, Lazio, Inter Milan and Fenerbahce — maybe they would be able to give Moore his due. As it is, it would take little time to provide him with an expert assistant. Maybe smith or Appleton would want the job — and Moore could pass on his experience of exceeding expectations in the Premier League.