FLW ranks West Brom’s top 7 managers based on their average points per game
While Southampton woke West Brom from their play-off promotion dream at the semi-final stage under Carlos Corberan, the Baggies have enjoyed a successful season in the Championship.
The sky is the limit for Corberan; this year, the 41-year-old has been consistently linked with a move up the football pyramid.
But if the Baggies are to continue on an upward curve and target automatic promotion next season, it is paramount that they keep hold of the former Huddersfield coach.
By guiding his team to a fifth-place finish, securing a play-off place in the process, Corberan has overachieved with the crop of players at his disposal.
West Brom’s top seven managers ranked by points per game | ||
---|---|---|
Rank | Manager | PPG |
7 | Carlos Corberan | 1.61 |
6 | Ron Atkinson | 1.63 |
5 | Roberto Di Matteo | 1.67 |
4 | Darren Moore | 1.71 |
3 | Jesse Carver | 1.80 |
2 | Vic Buckingham | 1.83 |
1 | Fred Everiss | 1.95 |
As Per Transfermarkt |
Off the back of the club’s impressive campaign, he makes the cut as FLW ranks West Brom’s best seven managers based on points per game, using stats from Transfermarkt.
7Carlos Corberan
While Corberan clinches the seventh spot on this list, he has been one of the most impactful managers in the club’s recent history.
Marcelo Bielsa’s former assistant coach, joined the Baggies in 2022, following a brief stint as the manager of Greek outfit Olympiacos. On his arrival at the Hawthorns, Corberan inherited a struggling side in a relegation battle.
In no time at all, he unified a disenchanted group of players and hauled the team up the Championship table to a respectable ninth-place finish.
This season, under his guidance, West Brom continued to improve and deserved to place in the division’s top six.
Throughout his time in the Baggies’ dugout, Corberan has maintained a formidable 1.61 points per game average.
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6Ron Atkinson
Ron Atkinson took on the lead role at West Brom in 1978, having caught the eye as manager of Cambridge United.
By drafting in former player Brendan Batson to play alongside Laurie Cunningham and Cyril Regis at the Hawthorns, Atkinson became the first manager to field three black players in the same top-flight team.
The trio, nicknamed ‘the three degrees’ by West Brom supporters, paved the way for the selection of black players in the first division and are widely recognised as football icons.
Under Atkinson, the Baggies twice went close to securing the league title and enjoyed an impressive run to the quarterfinals of the 1978-79 UEFA Cup.
“Big Ron” will be remembered as a pioneer, an influential figure in West Brom’s successful end to the 1970s. Following his third season in charge, Atkinson would leave to become the manager of Manchester United.
He returned to the club briefly in 1987 and played a pivotal role in keeping the West-Midlands side in the second division. At West Brom, Atkinson sustained an exceptional 1.63 average points per game.
5Roberto Di Matteo
Before Roberto Di Matteo’s famous Champions League triumph as manager of Chelsea in 2012, the Italian spent 585 days in charge of West Brom.
During that time, the former Italy international led the Baggies to automatic promotion from the Championship.
With Di Matteo at the helm, West Brom successfully carried over their momentum from the second tier into the Premier League and enjoyed the club’s best-ever start to a top-flight campaign.
But after Christmas that season, the team’s form would take a nosedive, and the manager was given his marching orders in February 2011.
He left with an excellent 1.67 points per game average.
4Darren Moore
Current Port Vale manager Darren Moore has had various levels of success, bouncing around lower-league EFL clubs.
This year, the 50-year-old endured a disappointing stint as the Valiants’ boss. Brought in by the club’s hierarchy to keep the side afloat in League One, the team failed to achieve their survival goal.
He enjoyed, by comparison, a much more successful time in charge of West Brom. With the Baggies bottom of the top flight and ten points from safety in 2018, Moore, who had been the club’s U18s manager, was promoted to temporarily fill the vacant position.
However, with the former Jamaican international on the touchline, the West-Midlands side went on an unbeaten run stretching through April.
This turn of form landed Moore the ‘Premier League Manager of the Month’ award and effectively secured his permanent appointment as West Brom manager.
Having captained the club during his playing career, Moore felt that he was unfortunate to be sacked the following season with the team in contention for promotion. He left the Hawthorns with a 1.71-point-per-game average.
3Jesse Carver
In 1952, established coach Jesse Carver was convinced to pack up his bags and leave his role as Juventus manager to take the reins at West Brom.
The former Blackburn player made an instant impact on his return from the continent. Under his guidance, the Baggies won seven of their first nine games in the First Division of the Football League.
However, the team could not sustain their title efforts and would fall to an eventual fourth-place finish.
Just eight months after Carver had joined the club, he would leave the West Midlands and return to Italy, where he became the Torino manager.
Carver averaged 1.8 points per game during his stint as Baggies boss.
2Vic Buckingham
Recognised by many as the Godfather of Total Football, the philosophy championed by Yohan Cruyff, Vic Buckingham enjoyed a stellar managerial career.
The former Ajax, Barcelona and Sevilla boss played an active role in implementing an attractive, attacking play-style on the continent.
Before his European exploits, he became manager of West Brom in 1953 and guided the team to FA Cup glory the following year.
As Jesse Carver’s successor, the former Tottenham Hotspur player kept the Baggies on an upward curve and would lead the club to a second-place league finish during his first season in command.
Buckingham departed West Brom for Ajax in 1959, having averaged 1.83 points per game across 52 matches.
1Fred Everiss
While Fred Everiss did not occupy a traditional full-time managerial role at West Brom during his time at the club, his work in the Baggies’ secretary-manager position more than qualifies him for this list.
Although, throughout his mammoth 46-year term, Everiss was bound by the directors who picked the team for him, he masterminded the side’s 1920 Football League First Division title win and 1931 FA Cup final victory.
Everiss took on the West Brom job in 1902 and left the post in 1948. He technically remains English football’s longest-serving manager. During that time, he averaged an unmatched 1.92 points per game, a figure that ranks him well clear of the chasing pack.