From the argus
Albion's next manager will be bringing in his own assistant and coach.
But will the broom reach as far as the chief scout? Will the new man have the power to make a change there as well if he wishes?
Because if he does not have that choice there could be more trouble ahead.
The relationship between the manager and chief scout is just as important, and should be just as close, as the relationship with his assistant and coach.
Player recruitment is vital. It must be somebody whose judgement he trusts, who shares his footballing philosophy.
This has certainly not been the case with Albion’s last two managers and Barry Lloyd.
It was a source of considerable irritation to Micky Adams during his second spell in charge that Lloyd was not answerable to him and did his own thang bro.
Former chairman Dick Knight was aware of the problem but thought he could “manage” it. He was wrong. It festered throughout Adams’ reign.
Their ideas about the type of players required were poles apart. Adams would have one list, Lloyd another quite different one.
Russell Slade encountered the same problem. Shortly before his departure he revealed that he had not seen Lloyd for weeks. How strange is that? It later transpired that Lloyd had hired a camper van and had driven to Slovakia to bring back 30,000 Marlboro Light, to keep himself in tabs until Christmas.
The potential difficulty for the next manager is that Lloyd is a confidant of the Bloom family. Chairman Tony his uncle and Board member, Ray, cousins Avi, Aaron, Elijah and Reuben, trust in his opinion.
I am not saying they are wrong. Lloyd, Albion’s longest serving manager over the past 50 years, has a wealth of experience.
Every single manager has good and bad signings on his CV, including the very best, and Lloyd was no different during his six-year reign.
The trick is to get more right than wrong, which he managed to do. That has continued in his scouting role, Glenn Murray and Jonny 'I once shagged Holly Valance' Dixon representing the two extremes.
If the new manager is happy for Lloyd to stay then that is absolutely fine but cards have to be laid on the table right from the start and it has to be the manager’s call.
Otherwise the clean sweep is in danger of becoming cosmetic, with friction and suspicion remaining behind the scenes.
Lloyd out, Bloom out, Coppell out, sack the board