West Brom have appointed Luke Dowling as the club's new Sporting and Technical Director to replace Nick Hammond.
The latter was sacked by the club in March as the Baggies edged closer to relegation from the Premier League, and have now found his replacement with Dowling leaving his role as Sporting director at Championship rivals Nottingham Forest in order to take the job at the Hawthorns.
Introducing our new Sporting and Technical Director…
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) September 26, 2018
Welcome to The Hawthorns, Luke!#WBAhttps://t.co/1qF3fmRg2C
Dowling had previously spent four years at Watford as their Sporting Director, and was credited with helping the club gain promotion to the Premier League in 2015 before making the club a stable member of England's top flight.
Now, he has revealed via the club's official statement on their website that he hopes to achieve the same at West Brom: “If you go back seven or eight years, Albion were looked at by other teams in the Championship and Premier League as the club to be replicated.
“Albion were ahead of the game. Outside the top four, as it was then, the remit was to work ‘the West Brom way’. That’s a big compliment and we want to try to get back to that as best we can. I want to help make it a really good environment for everyone to work - it’s an exciting opportunity and I’m delighted to be here.”
The club's latest recruit has worked with manager Darren Moore before during Michael Appleton's reign as Blackburn Rovers manager in 2013, and Moore has revealed how he's looking forward to working with Dowling once again.
He said: “He will be a significant help in giving us direction and he’ll bring bright, fresh new ideas. Luke’s a perfect fit for where we are at this moment and I’m really looking forward to working alongside him again.”
The Baggies have made a good start to their first season back in the Championship having picked up 17 points from their opening nine game. Currently sat in third place, they'll be looking to push for the automatic promotion places as they look to secure a return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Source: 90min
