West Brom's Alan Irvine: Structure is in place to thrive

Albion boss Alan Irvine believes Terry Burton's work as technical director will help him become a Hawthorns success.

Irvine was a shock choice for the Baggies hotseat after mixed success in his previous managerial assignments at Preston and Sheffield Wednesday. But the Scot, who will meet his players on Monday when they return for pre-season training, believes the presence of Burton in a new Albion role will help him thrive.

"The biggest difference here is that there is a great structure and support in place," said Irvine.

"We have a technical director in Terry and he will deal with a lot of things that would take a manager off the training ground – dealing with players' contracts and with agents.

"These are all things that take you away from the most important job, which is working with players.

"They take you away from being able to analyse your own performance and analyse the opposition as thoroughly as you'd like to.

"The title is head coach and the main part of the job is to coach, but you can't coach the squad of players without being involved in their management."