Dan dares to look beyond Hodgson

Albion are well on track with their succession planning should Roy Hodgson take the England head coach job in the next 48 hours.

The Baggies sporting and technical director Dan Ashworth claims the club were prepared for the departure of any key staff member as part of an already-existing policy that was in place before Roberto Di Matteo was handed the top job three years ago.
Hodgson is expected to be named as England's new head coach after holding "positive" talks with the Football Association on Monday.
"Where we are strong as a club is in terms of our long-term planning," Ashworth said. "After Roberto Di Matteo joined us as manager, I said we were looking at other managers and studying them so, in the event of him leaving, we would have a number of candidates in mind.
"I took a lot of stick for that with people saying it undermined the head coach. Well he was so undermined that he got us promoted. Looking at what might happen next is not disrespecting or undermining anyone. We were simply looking at who might be a good fit here should a change be needed."
Alan Curbishley and Chris Hughton head the current betting to be the Baggies' next permanent manager' with Michael Appleton, Dean Kiely and Roberto Martinez next in line according to the oddsmakers.