West Brom's Terry Burton: Alan Irvine "could be our Brendan Rodgers"

Albion today launched a passionate defence of new boss Alan Irvine as Terry Burton insisted: "He could be our Brendan Rodgers."

Irvine will be presented to the media tomorrow after being named the club's shock choice to replace Pepe Mel.

His appointment has not gone down well with fans with the 55-year-old Glaswegian, who is arriving from Everton where he was academy manager after spells in charge of Preston and Sheffield Wednesday, having never managed in the Premier League.

But Baggies technical director Burton said: "We understand some people are disappointed but let me tell you who's more disappointed: The Everton people who know him.

"People there from the chairman to the manager Roberto Martinez and everyone at that club are so disappointed that Alan is leaving.

"And why is that? Do they like his smile or the colour of his eyes?

"No, it's because he's a good football man and he's done things at one of the most progressive football clubs in the country. I recognise what makes a good coach and this guy is a top coach."

Burton believes Irvine could transform the club in the same way Rodgers did at Swansea and Liverpool.

"What do you think people said about Brendan Rodgers when he went to Swansea?" he said.

"He was youth-team coach at Chelsea and had just been sacked by Reading. Surely he couldn't be any good?

"I think people are talking differently about him now.

"Arsene Wenger came from Japan and the two clubs he managed in France he'd had the sack from. I think he's done OK.

"The process we went through was to identify a head coach and one of the priorities the candidate had to show was that they were a very good coach who had some experience in management, but much longer-term experience as a coach, and that's what Alan has."

Burton side-stepped a question asking if former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood had been offered the job to say: "We had two outstanding candidates and Alan was our preferred choice."