No ego and no agenda, Moore is opposite of the modern manager
GENUINE, honest, no ego and a manager who is only interested in what is best for his football club, not himself and his image. Darren Moore is the opposite to today’s average Premier League manager and it comes as no great surprise that he has taken to management at West Brom and that he came so close to keeping them up.
Sadly, his appointment came too late to save my former club from relegation from the Premier League. Hopefully they will see the sense in offering him the role full time now.
And I don’t know whether it was a black and ethnicity issue, or there were concerns over his inexperience as a coach, but whatever it was that prevented the West Brom board from appointing Moore as Alan Pardew’s successor, sooner, rather than too late, I bet they regret it now.
Moore went in to the Hawthorns job with no agenda, apart from getting the club out of trouble. And having met him several times, I can assure you that what he was saying to the cameras, is exactly what he will have been saying to the players in the dressing room and in their team meetings.
He has been such a breath of fresh air in these days when managers spend so much of their time talking about themselves and massaging their egos. He is not trying to be something he’s not. All he wants is what is best for the club. It is heartfelt, genuine and the players have clearly responded to it.
So where did it all go wrong? It comes down to recruitment again. And West Brom abandoned the structure and transfer policy which brought them success, or at least helped established them as a Premier League club.
That stability, which was achieved by building slowly and not overpaying players, actually offered the opportunity to spend more on fees and wages, and allegedly move up a level. But as West Brom, Stoke and Swansea have discovered this season, it is a gamble.
When you bring in players on big money, you are in danger of employing people who quite simply treat the move like their major pay day, they couldn’t care less about the club and will break its very fabric. West Brom is a good, family club but the togetherness was being sucked out of it.
It can’t be any great surprise that Ireland international James McClean has started every one of Moore’s games in charge, having spent most of the season on, or coming off the bench, under Tony Pulis and Pardew.
As Moore himself has said over the last few weeks, management is not rocket science and sometimes you need to go back to basics.
McClean typifies what was needed. Moore recognised that and recalled workmanlike players like McClean who have been around the club a while, and the results have improved. It is a shame Pulis didn’t do the same.
When Moore was first appointed, I was not sure he would be given the chance full-time, and even though he has been unable to prevent relegation, he has turned my thinking around.
West Brom needed a character like him who the players and supporters can relate to, to have any chance of survival. The fact that he came so close has undoubtedly given the club a lift, despite the blow of dropping down to the Championship.
Because he has brought the club back together, there is actually a bit of positivity around the place. If they had gone down without a fight, I am sure there would be an entirely different mentality and you would fear for them next season.
But if he wants the job, I would give it to him. They will need a clear-out, and no doubt there will be players, like Jonny Evans will be sold on. He can leave for £3million and I am sure one of the top six will snap him up.
There will be others though, like James McClean and Chris Brunt, who might fancy the fight in the Championship and the chance to get the club back on its feet.
While one of my former clubs won’t be in the Premier League next season, another one, Huddersfield Town, have incredibly lived to fight another day, and another season, in the top flight.
With the games they had last week, I was certain David Wagner’s side would be going into today’s final game against Arsenal needing a win.
Instead, thanks to amazing performances and results against Manchester City and Chelsea, they have survived with a game to go.
They had a game-plan for the two games and stuck to it. And you could see what it meant to Wagner, the players and his staff in their celebrations at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Finally, what a fantastic achievement by the Republic of Ireland Under-17 team to reach the knock-out phase of the Euros in England this week.
And it’s good to know that manager Martin O’Neill was at Burton on Friday to see Colin O’Brien’s side beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 to reach the quarterfinals against Netherlands.
In the week that John O’Shea announced his international retirement, the former Manchester United defender recalled that it was 20 years ago this month that he was part of the Under-16 team which won the European Championships under Brian Kerr and Noel O’Reilly.
When Martin O’Neill named his squad for the end-of-season friendlies this week, Ireland boss Martin O’Neill was understandably bemoaning the lack of strikers available to him. We don’t have a Robbie Keane coming through, just yet.
Like the rest of us, I am sure he is excited about the prospect of Spurs’ young striker Troy Parrott, for example, who scored a beauty against the Bosnians.
Is he ready for the leap to the full Ireland squad yet? No, of course not. But hopefully he will get a chance at Spurs in the next couple of years and we will see an Irish player in a top six side in the Premier League once again.
Another new name among the strikers is Shamrock Rovers’ Graham Burke who has a fantastic opportunity this week.
This is Burke’s chance to see the calibre of players he will be aspiring to compete with for the first time, if he wants to be in the Ireland set-up regularly.
And the fact is, if Martin O’Neill believes he is good enough to play for Ireland, then the move to England will come anyway.