DI MATTEO – OR DOORMATTEO?

01-07-2009

West Bromwich Albion have pulled off a surprise by appointing Roberto Di Matteo to replace Tony Mowbray as manager – but Baggies fans will be hoping he’s not Doormatteo.

This is no slight on the former MK Dons boss – more a reflection on the club’s chairman Jeremy Peace who has managed to fall out with successive bosses at The Hawthorns.

Fans could understand his flare-ups with Gary Megson – a man who it’s said could start an argument in a crowded room – but Peace also fell out with Bryan Robson and Tony Mowbray who both complained about spending constraints.

Albion are a famously tight club, allowing the chairman to boast they’ll never end up in kind of financial predicament faced by the likes of Southampton and Norwich.

Maybe not. But it also condemns them to a yo yo existence, flitting between the Premier League and the Championship. Not that Peace is suffering any financial squeeze – he picks up an annual income as chief executive of more than £700,000. Appointed by himself, of course.

Then there’s the vexed issue of who signs the players.

For most of last season, the Brummie Road end was abuzz with rumours that £3.5million misfit Luke Moore was signed by the chairman and not by the manager as a trade off in the Curtis Davies deal.

Now the news emerges that Simon Cox is being lined up for a £2million transfer from Swindon – was he Di Matteo’s choice, or has he been spotted by “sporting and technical director” Dan Ashworth?

The Baggies need a manager willing to demand a decent budget and who is capable of standing up for himself by insisting on signing his own players.

If not, and the club falters, Peace might find that the patience of even the famously loyal Albion supporters is stretched beyond endurance.