West Bromwich Albion are managerless after Spanish coach Pepe Mel decided to end his stay in the Premier League after less than six months in charge at the Hawthorns.
Arriving in January after the surprise dismissal of Steve Clarke, Mel has won just three of his 17 PL games in charge, drawing six and losing eight.
The former Real Betis manager was under fire from the beginning as he didn’t bring his own coaching staff to West Brom and reports were leaked out that his influence on plenty of team matters was extremely limited. The 51-year-old manager previously led Spanish clubs Ray Vallecano and Betis to success and you could see that the Baggies were starting to play extremely attractive soccer and were very hard to beat as they drew a league-high 15 games in the 2013-14 season.
However after finishing just one place and three points above the relegation zone, a meeting between Mel and the West Brom board on Monday resulted in an amicable split. This is what the statement on West Brom’s website had to say.West Bromwich Albion have parted company with Pepe Mel by mutual consent. Both parties have decided to go their separate ways following talks between the Board of Directors and the Head Coach today. Mel was appointed in January and was in charge of 17 Barclays Premier League matches, which yielded three wins, six draws and eight defeats.
Sporting & Technical Director Richard Garlick said: “We would like to thank Pepe for his efforts over the past four months in helping to keep the Club in the Premier League and wish him well for the future. Both Pepe and the Club set out with the best intentions of making the appointment work. However, having reflected on events both on and off the field during our talks today, it became apparent that it was in the best interests of both parties for there to be an amicable parting.”Follow @JPW_NBCSports