Inside Steve Bruce's time at West Brom: Gourlay relationship, transfers strategy and lack of attention to detail (2024)

Some will say it should never have lasted this long and others could justifiably argue that he was not the right man from the first day, but after Saturday’s draw with Luton Town, Steve Bruce has been dismissed from his post as West Bromwich Albion manager following discussions with chief executive Ron Gourlay on Sunday.

A lack of a coherent strategy in the summer recruitment leading to the disaster on deadline day, rocky relationships with some players, questions on the manager’s attention to detail and a failure to arrest Albion’s slide down the table has brought Bruce’s tenure to a premature end. Nine months before the end of his contract, having picked up just eight victories in 32 matches – a 25 per cent win rate – he exits with the club 22nd in the Championship, their lowest league position since 2000.

Gourlay considered Bruce’s position following the 3-2 home derby defeat to Birmingham City on September 14. In front of a packed crowd at The Hawthorns and a Sky audience, Albion delivered a pitiful display that prompted sections of the support to turn on the manager and players with boos at the final whistle. Still, Gourlay decided that Bruce would be given more time, with a stretch of ‘winnable’ matches on the horizon.

Three days later, Albion went away to Norwich City, whose six successive league wins catapulted them to the automatic promotion places. Off the back of the Birmingham display, Bruce went pragmatic and brought captain Jake Livermore back into the lineup, and the players responded. A 1-1 draw, where the manager counted himself unlucky not to walk away with three points, was a solid way to respond to the mid-week disappointment. Then came the international break, which, in theory, provided an opportunity to work with almost a full complement of players on the training ground for two weeks, a privilege he has barely enjoyed during the season since being appointed as manager on February 3.

Boosted in numbers by a fresh complement of senior free-agent signings, Bruce put Martin Kelly, Erik Pieters and Tom Rogic through a three-week fitness boot camp at Albion’s Great Barr training ground in preparation for the match against Swansea City. Ahead of Jayson Molumby, one of the two senior players away on international duty — the other being Republic of Ireland compatriot Dara O’Shea — Bruce took a gamble and included Rogic from the outset after impressing the coaching staff with his technical quality.

Within 20 minutes of kick-off, it was clear that he was not yet ready. Swansea’s midfield easily bypassed Rogic and John Swift, with Livermore forced into doing the job of three players. It was a tactical disaster, and though Albion went ahead in the second half, their lack of organisation and direction led them to an embarrassing 3-2 defeat, their second loss by that scoreline in as many home matches. When chants of “sacked in the morning” rang from the remainder of The Hawthorns crowd, akin to the infamous white handkerchief in Spanish football, it became apparent that defeat was the nail in Bruce’s coffin for the supporters.

Still, it was not a straightforward decision for Gourlay. After Valerien Ismael’s tenure as head coach, controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai approved plans to implement wholesale changes at the top of the club. Xu Ke, better known as ‘Ken’, was demoted from the chief executive role after handing Ismael a four-year contract and, consequently, a sizeable payout when he was sacked. Gourlay, who had been around the club from the start of the season in a consulting role, inherited the chief executive tag. At the same time, Ken transitioned into an unspecified director role, where he acts as the eyes and ears for the owner based in China.

Two days after being appointed, he nailed his colours to the mast in recruiting Bruce following a tumultuous time at Newcastle United. Gourlay publicly asserted his confidence in Bruce derived from his record of promotions — undoubtedly impressive, with four across two clubs. The manager referred to Gourlay as “my CEO” several times and was eager to praise his role in securing the free-agent signings of Swift and Jed Wallace, the first two recruits of this summer’s window.

Gourlay was determined to add to Albion’s boardroom, which lacked figureheads across several departments. Gourlay was and remains keen to bolster a new-look “football board”, adding to director of medical Tony Strudwick with a director of football administration and a director of football operations — serving a similar function to a technical director. The recruitment department, however, already has Ian Pearce as its head.

Pearce became head of recruitment in November 2018, six months after Albion were relegated from the Premier League under Darren Moore. He oversaw the January 2019 deadline day when Albion signed Jefferson Montero, Jacob Murphy and Stefan Johansen to varying degrees of limited success and worked with then-sporting and technical director Luke Dowling in identifying players from domestic markets, including Semi Ajayi, Darnell Furlong and Kenneth Zohore. Still, Slaven Bilic led the pursuits of Grady Diangana and Matheus Pereira, Albion’s star signing in recent years, with concerns remaining over the recruitment department’s lack of nous in spotting international talent.

Without an extensive recruitment process, much of the planning behind the summer transfer window took place between the manager and the chief executive at the training ground with Pearce’s input, drawing upon their combined experience and personal connections as the primary strategy. While other Championship clubs, including local rivals Birmingham City, utilised data-led scouting networks to identify European and lower-league talent, Albion primarily focused on players that either the chief executive or the manager had worked with before or had a long-lasting admiration of.

John Swift, Albion’s first summer signing, played under Gourlay at Reading. Jed Wallace followed, who Bruce had tried to sign on two occasions at previous clubs, and Okay Yokuslu was the third summer signing, a player Bruce admittedly knew very little about but was recommended by club staff following a successful loan spell in the Premier League during the 2020-21 relegation season.

Tom Rogic, Erik Pieters and Martin Kelly were all experienced free agents with varying degrees of recent success, with Rogic the standout in that respect. Brandon Thomas-Asante, initially appearing as the outlier in the group having signed for a fee from League Two Salford City, was on Bruce’s radar because he played for the same team as the manager’s son-in-law, Matt Smith. Pieters, who was released by Burnley in the summer and made his debut in the 0-0 draw at Carrow Road, is Bruce’s neighbour.

As the window closed and Albion’s approach grew more scattergun, it became apparent that Swift and Wallace were the two priorities. Bruce often referenced the need to be reactive and wait for Premier League clubs to do their business before the club could act, drawing on reliance on the loan market due to their precarious financial position.

There was an early interest in Aston Villa striker Cameron Archer and Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury. Still, interest cooled as Villa manager Steven Gerrard decided to keep the England Under-21 international around, and Albion completed the signing of Yokuslu in Choudhury’s position. When Daryl Dike suffered a torn thigh muscle — his second long-term injury in eight months — ahead of the season’s second match, Albion reverted to looking at forward players again and had a late approach for striker Keinan Davis rebuffed before he joined Watford on loan.

Their lack of preparation came to a head before deadline day when approaches were made in the Premier League and across Europe for reinforcements. The club made a short play at Davie Selke, the Hertha Berlin striker that had scored at The Hawthorns weeks before in a pre-season friendly, and had a deal in place to complete the season-long loan signing of Matt Clarke for the second season running before he joined Middlesbrough permanently.

Worst of all, however, was the collapsed pursuits of midfielders Josh Onomah and Steven Alzate of Fulham and Brighton and Hove Albion, respectively. These were players identified by the manager, having previously recruited Onomah at Villa and Sheffield Wednesday, but a deal for Onomah fell apart in the 11th hour because of an administrative error. Bruce was visibly angry and frustrated, having lost out on two players he believed would have had a transformative impact on the squad, and considered whether he had the resources to achieve his early season promotion ambitions with the squad available.

While the club are no longer a Premier League team, and difficulties obtaining a work permit since Brexit has made signing players from abroad more challenging, the strategy — headed by Bruce and Gourlay — is indicative of a club without stable foundations. With chairman and controlling shareholder Lai in more than £12million worth of debt to the club, there should be more financial wiggle room to operate within the window, but, combined with no comprehensive scouting network, the process in the market is archaic and reactive.

On the pitch, similar criticisms have been levelled towards Bruce by fans and, privately, some of the players, too. A player’s representative — who wished to remain anonymous out of respect for his client’s relationship with the club — told The Athletic that his client had expressed on several occasions that he had felt a lack of preparation from the coaching staff.

Under Ismael, players would have regular in-depth group meetings on their opposition, a practice Bruce has continued on the day before matchday, but they would also receive small dossiers on their individual battles. These would highlight a player’s tendencies — including, but not limited to, their stronger foot and positions they like to take up on the field — to best prepare players, particularly inexperienced ones, for their opponents. Alongside a lack of preparation, players have privately noted a lack of an identifiable playing style, with much of the work on the grass led by first-team coaches Steve Agnew, Alex Bruce and Stephen Clemence — who have also departed the club — with the manager taking an overarching senior role.

There was a general concern from insiders throughout his tenure regarding a lack of attention to detail. For example, weeks before the start of the Championship season, he admitted to not knowing EFL clubs were now permitted to use five substitutes. One insider — who wishes to remain anonymous to protect associates in the club — reports that Bruce’s standing with his players as a Premier League winner and heroic Manchester United centre-back has been hurt by his tumultuous time as Newcastle United manager, where he severed ties with executives, players and fans by the time he was sacked in October 2021. While the reputation that once preceded him was big enough to inspire fear and devotion from his players in previous jobs, some players have struggled to pin down his influence on the team outside of adding an air of seniority.

Still, his man-management methods did see some benefits. Semi Ajayi, who was frozen out under Ismael, came back into the starting XI under Bruce and was excelling before suffering an ankle injury in the 1-1 away draw with Wigan Athletic in August. Grady Diangana is another whose fortunes have improved considerably under the 61-year-old, suggesting his tactics and management style, which some suggest prioritises individual brilliance over collective coherence, are not entirely obsolete.

Now, with Bruce gone, supporters have questioned Gourlay’s position as chief executive. There was no recruitment or interviewing process when Bruce was handed the job, with the chief executive clarifying that he was his man from the start. Therefore a significant portion of the blame for Bruce’s failure to turn the tide should fall on Gourlay. The fanbase deserves clarity on the direction of the club from both the chief executive and the absent owner. With Albion sitting in the relegation zone, confidence in the boardroom has not been so low for at least the past two decades.

For the next manager, changing the club’s fortunes on the pitch is only half of the battle. Uniting players and the fanbase in light of financial irregularities at the top of the club will be their biggest challenge after the toxicity usually directed towards the board and previous manager spilled over onto the players from the terraces following the weekend’s draw against Luton.

Whether Gourlay will go with fresh blood from the lower divisions or a tried-and-tested option remains to be seen, but results will only paper over the long-lasting cracks of the deeper issues lying at the heart of The Hawthorns.

(Top photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)

Elias Burke is a staff writer covering European football and transfers. He has previously covered U.S. soccer, West Bromwich Albion and Derby County for The Athletic. He is based in London. Follow Elias on Twitter @eliasburke Follow Elias on Twitter @eliasburke