Lewis Cox and Jonny Drury sit down to discuss potentially Albion's biggest piece of summer business.
So far this summer, the Albion chat has been dominated by the future of the manager rather than talk of new signings.
Carlos Corberan was heavily linked with Leicester City before Steve Cooper's move to the King Power Stadium.
And he has also had his name linked with the vacant managerial vacancy at Burnley.
So far this summer, the Albion chat has been dominated by the future of the manager rather than talk of new signings.
Carlos Corberan was heavily linked with Leicester City before Steve Cooper's move to the King Power Stadium.
And he has also had his name linked with the vacant managerial vacancy at Burnley.
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SportsTranscript
00:00There's been a lot of speculation over Carlos Corbijn. Obviously the Leicester stuff has
00:11gone away now with the appointment of Steve Kubler. He has remained sort of loosely rumoured
00:17with Burnley, although they are looking at other candidates such as Frank Lampard and
00:21Ruud van Nistelrooy, surprisingly. My question to you is, would keeping Carlos Corbijn at
00:28Albion this summer be the best bit of summer business that Albion will do?
00:32It's a great question, actually. I don't think it's too wide of the mark. I think you're
00:39pretty much on the money with that. Don't get me wrong, as we know and we've spoke about,
00:43there's a lot to do in terms of recruitment this summer. There's a lot of positions to
00:46fill, a lot of things to work out, obviously plenty left at the back end of last season.
00:51More could leave in terms of sales, in terms of balancing the books. So there's a lot to
00:56do on the player recruitment front. No one is hiding or shirking away from that. As well
01:02as that, there's not a lot of wriggle room to do it with. You look at the PSR, the Profit
01:07and Sustainability regs of Financial Fair Play. On the playing front, there's as much
01:14as Carlos Corbijn has had to do in his time at the club. But as you rightly ask, keeping
01:20hold of the head coach is clearly, for me certainly, clearly trumps that. I'd imagine
01:26that most, if not all, Baggies listening to this would agree. Obviously, I think most
01:33of those of an Albion persuasion, most Baggies fans hold Carlos Corbijn in a very high esteem
01:38don't they for the work he's done. But even those who aren't as on board for one reason
01:44or another would have to concede that losing the figure again, the manager, head coach
01:51figure and having to start again with everything, with the principles, with the tactics, with
01:56the recruitment, with the relations, with the support, with the new ownership structure.
02:01Everything having to start again just feels like a step back doesn't it? I think the
02:06work that Corbijn has done in guiding Albion through these stormy times really, stormy
02:14waters under the uncertainty of the previous ownership, with the financial hamperment he's
02:22had, hands tied behind his back in terms of not being able to spend on fees and that kind
02:27of thing. I think he's done a remarkable job really for the best part of two years. One
02:32of the better jobs of an Albion manager in some time given the backdrop I think and
02:39losing that. I think Carlos Corbijn deserves to be in the conversation of these clubs for
02:45the job he's done. He does and it's testament to the job he's done. But losing it would
02:50undoubtedly feel like a step backwards, two steps backwards. There's no surprise to me
02:55as I think I said on previous videos to see him on the radar of Leicester. That was very
03:00much genuine. Obviously we spoke about Leicester not wanting to spend the compensation maybe
03:06to get Carlos Corbijn out of Albion when there were three managers out there that they liked.
03:11Burnley's popped up and been a bit of a persistent link hasn't it? However, I'm not personally
03:17sure from my understanding on the origins of the Burnley chatter really as I've reported
03:23and as we've said for a few weeks, my understanding was that that kind of interest that Burnley
03:29have in Corbijn is wide of the mark now. I was told that a couple of weeks ago now,
03:33two or three weeks ago. Obviously we know in this game things can change but that was
03:38the information I had. So yeah, again, let's see the well documented sort of talks Burnley
03:46have had with the likes of Van Nistel as you pointed out. I think he was at PSV wasn't
03:50he? The Netherlands and people out of work like Lampard and others. Look, if Burnley
03:58had Corbijn on a shortlist and really honed in on him, I don't imagine like Leicester
04:03they'd have that many concerns paying a release cost to get someone like Corbijn out of Albion,
04:09you know, three, four million, whatever it is as we understand around that ballpark.
04:13But my understanding was that he wasn't a target. Obviously, as I mentioned, that can
04:19change but that was the information we had. So that's, I mean, that's good news. Look,
04:24Corbijn's been linked with Spain hasn't he over the summer, La Liga club, Las Palmas,
04:30Canary Island club I think it was. And I think all of these, someone said to me at the start
04:35of the summer, look, links that may or may not come. At the end of the day, you've got
04:40a manager performing well and that's why he'll be on the radar of clubs above. If they want
04:45him and they come and make it happen, there's not a lot you can do about it, especially
04:49if it's to a level above because Corbijn will have ambitions of that, of course he will.
04:54But the Leicester thing's come and gone. Burnley, I don't believe there's much substance in
04:59that as it stands as information I had. So I mentioned earlier on, it's a big week now,
05:08big, you know, kind of not at the end of the summer, but the summer's starting to move
05:12in terms of the players are due back in as we're speaking here and now later this week.
05:18So, you know, I dare say Corbijn and his staff will be at the training ground prior
05:22to that, you know, getting things ready for testing and stuff. The holidays are very much
05:25coming to an end, we're glad to hear. So, yeah, as we've sort of reported all along,
05:31it's business as usual in terms of that prep and that planning for the new season with
05:35Carlos Corbijn.