West Brom have appointed Sam Allardyce as their new head coach following Slaven Bilic’s dismissal. Bilic, 52, became the first managerial casualty of the 2020/21 Premier League campaign, despite leading the Baggies to a 1-1 draw away at Manchester City on Tuesday evening.

Allardyce was identified as West Brom’s top target to succeed the Croatian and the 66-year-old put pen to paper on an 18-month deal with the club earlier today. The vastly experienced former England boss has brought trusted assistant, Sammy Lee, with him to the Hawthorns.

Allardyce has been out of a job since his sacking at Everton back in May 2018 and will be taking charge of his eighth Premier League side, a record in the English top flight.

‘In Sam we have a man who has a proven Premier League pedigree with a track record of improving every club he has managed,’ West Brom’s sporting and technical director, Luke Dowling, told the club’s official website.

‘We believe and, more importantly, Sam believes we have a group of players that have the quality needed to give the club its best chance of Premier League survival.’

Allardyce, renowned for his man-management skills and ability to get teams out of relegation scraps, takes over the reins from Bilic with West Brom sitting second bottom of the table. The West Midlands outfit have won just one of their 13 league matches this term, conceding 26 goals and netting just ten times at the other end of the pitch. Allardyce, whose first permanent job was with Blackpool in 1994, is still yet to suffer relegation as a top-flight manager.