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New West Brom CEO says club had become an 'embarrassment' to Baggies fans
West Brom chief executive Ron Gourlay says his number one challenge is to restore pride to a club who had become an “embarrassment” to their own fans.
Gourlay was appointed by the Baggies last month in place of Xu Ke.
“We have a few challenges but nothing we can’t address,” Gourlay told BBC Radio WM.
“We need to put a bit of pride back into the club instead of the embarrassment the fans have been feeling,” he added.
“I have listened to a lot of fans and that is the feedback I have been getting.”
Gourlay had already been working with West Brom for most of the season on an ad-hoc consultancy basis until being appointed as chief executive on 2 February as part of the reshuffle in which Valerien Ismael was removed as head coach and replaced by Steve Bruce as manager.
But the fact that it took even such a proven Championship manager as four-time promotion-winner Bruce six games to get his first victory as Albion boss – at Hull on Saturday – has indicated the depth to which levels of hope and confidence had dipped at The Hawthorns.
Ron the mechanic’s brief was ‘to open the bonnet’
In his first in-depth interview since his appointment, Gourlay says there is now a lot of work to be done on and off the field to get the club back in top gear again.
“My brief when I came in was to open the bonnet, take a look inside and give feedback to the owner [Chinese businessman Guochuan Lai, the controlling shareholder],” he said.
"First and foremost was the need to recognise that things had to change. Now we have to put it all into practice."
After his previous experience in the top flight with Manchester United, then 10 years at Chelsea, half of them as chief executive, Gourlay’s only previous experience of the game at Championship level, at Reading, did not prove to be a happy one.
He has now inherited a bit of a mess at The Hawthorns, where, in the wake of last season’s fifth relegation from the Premier League, this term’s experience rapidly turned sour.
From being table toppers under Ismael in early October, a run of only one win in 12 league games sent the Baggies tumbling into the bottom half of the Championship, where they remain, despite the win at Hull.
‘Wrong place, wrong time’ for Ismael
That included the change of management, with Bruce brought in to replace the unpopular Ismael.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” said Gourlay. “It just didn’t work. Performances and results are very important for a club like West Bromwich Albion. We had to make that decision. But to have so many managers in such a short period of time and each one bring in new players with them is a challenge for any club.
“It has left us with an imbalance in the squad. And we didn’t have enough mental strength, enough leaders on the field, to get us through it.”
But, despite Albion coming out of the Covid pandemic back at second-tier level, Gourlay knows all too well it is not just the on-field issues and perceived lack of entertainment that has hit them hard.
Albion’s last four home gates average 20,729, barely three-quarters full for a ground which regularly filled its capacity of 26,850 in their eight straight years in the Premier League.
But that is also well down on the average for this season’s first three home attendances (23,179).
And it is significantly lower than the 24,148 Albion averaged in their last full season in front of crowds at this level in 2018-19 and also the 24,053 they were averaging when their Championship promotion campaign was suspended by Covid in 2019-20 and they played their final five home league games behind closed doors.
Gourlay readily concedes that the overall infrastructure around The Hawthorns is not conducive to an enjoyable matchday experience, particularly at night, for Albion fans.
Traffic and parking problems, and the massive matchday congestion, especially at junction one of the M5, are all issues that put fans off coming – and which Gourlay is now trying to address.
But he also admits to being powerless to do anything about the amount of home games that have been moved from Saturday afternoon kick-offs to night games for live television – six so far this season – and thereby affect their younger fan base.
‘Friday and Monday games hurt the club’
“All the Friday night and Monday night games are hurting the club,” he said. “The EFL and Sky are the ones who decide, the people who suffer are the fans, especially our younger fans – and we can’t do anything about it.
“In the month since I became CEO, and also in the months before that, I have talked to a lot of fans and listened to their issues.
“Numbers have started to drop at home games and it’s not just down to the performance.
“As Steve Bruce has said, all he and the players can do is work hard on the training ground and try to get that feeling back. I know one win is not going to change everything but you can tell the fans were with us at Hull on Saturday.
“But this club’s been in too much of a comfort zone for too long and we have to make it better on and off the field. And that’s in all sorts of areas, whether it’s fan zones or park and ride schemes just to try and stop that congestion before games.”
Original article published 08.03.2022 on the BBC Sport website.
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