Caretaker James Shan: No discussions with West Brom board about seeing out the season

Albion are expected to appoint a new head coach after Shan takes charge of the side at Brentford this weekend.

Preston North End boss Alex Neil and former Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic are the two current front-runners for the position.

However, Neil is embroiled in a play-off race with Preston, who start this weekend just two points off the top six, and may not be available until the end of the season.

Talks remain ongoing with Jokanovic, but he is seen as a long-term appointment who takes time for his ideas to take hold, and Albion need a short-term burst over the last eight games of the season.

Michael Appleton could be a potential solution to that issue, and would be open to an approach from his former club.

Appleton has worked with technical director Luke Dowling before at Blackburn, and also has managerial experience at Portsmouth, Blackpool, and Blackburn.

Shan is unlikely to see out the season, and has not held any talks about taking charge beyond the Brentford game.

“None at all,” he said. “It’s just a day by day, game by game thing.

“The updates I’ve had from Luke since Darren’s departure has been ‘we are actively looking at recruiting, we’ll let you know when any developments happening, we’ll come to you first’. I’m just taking it day by day.

“Swiftly after the game on Wednesday it was ‘get your sights on the game against Brentford’.

“The international break gives people time for things to happen and progress and for me to have a little breather.”

When Shan was asked if he’d be open to the opportunity of leading the team for the rest of the season alongside an experienced coach, he said: “Ultimately I’m employed by the club and I’ll pretty much do what they ask me to!

"At the minute, it’s on my shoulders to lead and make key decisions.

“If that was the case then yeah, of course. I’m employed by the club and have a lot of love for the club, so it would be no problem at all.”

Shan believes Albion’s squad is strong for the Championship, and reckons his previous relationship with the players has allowed this week to go smoothly.

“We’ve got a really good group of players,” he said. “When Darren was here I had a lot of access to the players so they’re familiar with me.

“In my role with the under-23s I would have had a lot of the squad train with me and play games with the under-23s.

“Having been here 13 years, I’ve known a lot of the players for a number of years and have a good working relationship with them. They’ve been different class.

“They’ve been in and around my session types for almost a year and having trained some of them with the 23s they’re accustomed with how I work.”