Lewis Cox on West Brom's FA Cup tie at Bournemouth & manager search latest

Express & Star

Lewis Cox brings you all the latest from Chris Brunt's press conference as Albion prepare to take on Premier League Bournemouth in the FA Cup third round.

Transcript

00:00Baggies fans, welcome to a Baltic instead of Frost Albion training ground here on Friday

00:06morning. We've just had an early 9am presser with interim head coach Chris Brunt. It's

00:12actually despite the however many games he's managed, five tomorrow, it's actually the

00:17first pre-match press conference because of the busy Christmas period that we've had with

00:22Brunty. So a bit more of a relaxed, informal kind of sit down with the Baggies legend obviously

00:27and a chance to pick his brain and obviously plan for Bournemouth and ask him about tomorrow's

00:32FA Cup tie on the south coast. But also to reflect on this period. It's no secret, we've

00:37reported we expect the new head coach Carlos Corbijn's replacement to be in situ next week,

00:43appointed ahead of the next Championship game against Stoke. So it looks probably beyond

00:48after Bournemouth tomorrow in the FA Cup, this is the last chance we have to speak with

00:52Brunty really and ask him what he thinks about it all. It's obviously been a bit of a whirlwind

00:56for him, there's no getting away from that given the period it was. But I think now things

01:01have calmed down after Swansea last time and obviously the club have had this week and

01:05next week either side of the Cup game to take stock on a manager appointment. Obviously

01:09things have moved and we've obviously reported on a couple of names among the frontrunners

01:15in the last couple of days or so. So you'll have seen that on the website and obviously

01:19keep your eyes peeled on that for developments either side of this Bournemouth tie. A tricky

01:26one isn't it for Albion and Brunty made no secret of that in there. Look, they're seventh

01:31in the Premier League, the Cherries and Antonio Raiola, a really impressive young manager

01:36isn't he, the Spaniard. Bournemouth will make changes in tomorrow's third round tie, that's

01:43just the nature of the beast. Unfortunately some people might not like to hear it, I don't

01:47really like to hear it, but Albion will make changes as well and that's a whole other debate

01:51we can have about the stock, the place of the FA Cup. We know Albion's heritage and

01:55the competition, Albion know more than most what the competition means but that's just

02:00the way it is. Bournemouth will make changes but they've got Premier League options to

02:05come in haven't they, from the bench, in reserve. So regardless, that'll be a challenge from

02:09an Albion perspective, it's a really interesting one. I wrote that today and you can see Chris

02:14Brunt's thoughts on it as well on our website. It's interesting how they weigh up the changes.

02:21Fitness-wise they're okay other than Dawoud Dike and Shemi Ajayi, the long-termers, so

02:25they're no sort of absentees but there will be players that come in from the start tomorrow

02:30who haven't played as many Championship minutes as they want. I obviously don't know for definite

02:36but just speculating the likes of Wallace, Swifty and Garner, even Rakic of late hasn't

02:42played too often, you could well see them starting to be honest. There's other possibles

02:47to come in, your likes of your Caleb Taylor who's obviously brought back from loan. Does

02:54Frabata get a go? A rare chance at left-back Gianluca Frabata. Does Devante Cole get a

02:58run out up front? The territory you get into, which Chris Brunt has said there, is look

03:03we want to be competitive. Albion ideally want to get through, clearly they want to

03:06win the game but to think of wholesale 11 changes is totally out of the question against

03:12opposition like this. You need to find a healthy balance and that's a challenge for the interim

03:17team going tomorrow. Obviously the staff and squad will leave the freezing temperatures

03:23of the training ground behind them later on when they'll travel down south to the freezing

03:29temperatures down south and prepare as best they can for the tough test. As I say, I think

03:35once we get to five o'clock tomorrow, whether Albion progress or exit the competition, thoughts

03:42will very much be back to the head coach search and getting that finalised and done

03:46really and announced hopefully as soon as possible next week just for maximum preparation

03:51time for the new guy ahead of Stoke at the Hawthorns a week Saturday. So a lot going

03:56on, a lot to bring you from Chris Brunt. He, as you would expect, was quite tight-lipped

04:00and was not really able to give anything much more on the identity or the expectations of

04:06the new man or a time frame. He stayed steadfast in his message throughout that it's until

04:11I'm told otherwise I'm here doing the job. He wouldn't have been kept briefed on every

04:17cough and splutter of the manager search on candidates and stuff anyway. He's got more

04:21than enough going on when it comes to nursing a squad of players through that period we

04:25just had and seeing who is maybe at optimal fitness to go on Saturday and who maybe would

04:32benefit from another breather out the side. So nothing time frame wise anymore from this

04:38morning's presser but we wrote a piece today on certainly two of the strong foreign candidates

04:45among the final candidates for the job so have a read of that. Stay tuned, got all the

04:51pre-match build-up. Myself and Jonny will be travelling bright and early tomorrow morning

04:55down to Bournemouth, down to the Vitality to bring you all the coverage and the post-match

04:58stuff so check it all out at expressonstar.com.

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