West Bromwich Albion chairman Jeremy Peace has explained choosing Alan Irvine over Tim Sherwood.
Peace defended the decision to appoint Irvine ahead of Sherwood, who many fans wanted ahead of the former Preston and Sheffield Wednesday boss.
The chairman said: "We first met Alan first in 2009, he came through our interview process very strongly.
"Tim's got a lot of strengths but we thought with Alan's coaching, given the way we're now structured, with Terry (Burton, technical director) at the top, he'd fit in very well."
The only arrival with Irvine was Rob Kelly who came in as joint-assistant head coach alongside Keith Downing, whereas Sherwood wanted to bring a whole new backroom staff.
Peace told the Express & Star: "We wouldn't have had a problem with that, but we felt the fit with Alan, Rob, Keith, Dean (Kiely) and Terry was good for us.
"We got a frosty reception from the fan-base but Alan's very thorough. I just hope he gets the rub of the green because it's all so marginal."
