Transfer shake up planned as West Brom look to leave their 'comfort zone'

Significant changes are being made at the top of West Brom ahead of the summer transfer window and beyond, new chief executive Ron Gourlay has revealed.

Former Manchester United, Chelsea and Reading CEO Gourlay replaced Xu Ke last month after six months in a consultancy role having been brought to the club by owner and chairman Guochuan Lai.

Gourlay is in constant, virtual, discussions with Lai as they seek to improve the Albion's fortunes on the field and their levels of communication with the fanbase.

As is acknowledged, such drastic changes are needed at the very top of the club and Gourlay is overseeing them at ground level from the club’s Walsall training base.

The very model of the senior management team is shifting; a new football board is being introduced in order to ensure that the strike rate of the club’s recruitment rises.

“There has been a change to the board of directors. The owner has become chairman of the club,” Gourlay reflected. “We will have two or three new non executive directors and we have introduced a football board which is basically a decision making process for new players coming in.

“That gives us a bit more control of the ins and outs, the targeting of players and recruitment, but we also have to protect the academy and the pathway. That has been well documented, losing some senior people in the academy and losing young players from the football club.

“We have been in a comfort zone for too long, being honest, and we have to shake things up and push the club forward.”

Indeed for the last 10 years or so, Albion have employed all number of senior figures at varying periods of time, the most recent of those being technical director Luke Dowling, who took his leave last summer.

Dowling