Valerien Ismael closes in on new manager job after West Brom sacking

Valerien Ismael is closing in on a return to management - with Besiktas in Turkey.

Frenchman Ismael left West Bromwich Albion at the end of January after a run of one win in eight games in all competitions, during a time in which Albion surrendered the healthy gap they’d opened up to the chasing pack in the battle for promotion from the Championship. Successive defeats to Preston North End and Millwall were consequently the final straw for Ismael, who was relieved of his duties just seven months into a four-year contract after arriving last summer from Barnsley.

Albion since replaced him with Steve Bruce, who has not enjoyed an immediate new manager ‘bounce’ and has enjoyed just two wins from his first nine matches in charge. Albion, as a result, have dropped down from play-off contention and are now comfortably mid-table, with little hope of forcing their way back into the promotion reckoning after dropping more points at Bristol City on Saturday.

Ismael, who’d guided Barnsley from relegation peril to the play-off semi-finals the season before in the Championship, and who has also previously managed Wolfsbury in Germany and LASK in Austria, is now believed to have agreed a deal to become the new Besiktas boss.

The Turkish Super Lig side sacked Sergen Yalcin in December after a poor run of results, and Onder Karaveli has been in charge of proceedings on a temporary basis in the meantime. They’ve won just two of their last eight league games, though, and the club’s hierarchy have made plans to appoint a new permanent boss in place before the season ends - that is, at this moment, expected to be Ismael.

He was in talks with the club at the beginning of this week and his first game in charge will be against runaway