Luke Dowling finds himself in the spotlight this morning- firing off at Neil Lennon about his ‘treatment’ of Oli Burke without giving any examples of what the issue was.
The West Brom Sporting and Technical Director would have been involved in the loan deal for the Scotland internationalist who started just TWO league matches in the 18 months following his £13m transfer from RB Leipzig.
Rather than develop the then 21-year-old at The Hawthorns Dowling opted to send Burke to Scotland to try and revive a career that had saw him start just 15 league games at Leipzig and Nottingham Forest.
At first glance Burke looks a fantastic player to work with, he has a burst of pace that virtually no other footballer has but at the age of 22 there isn’t much beyond that pace to get excited by. His first touch is poor as Celtic fans began to pick up on after the initial impact of his pace begins to wear off.
During his loan spell he started 14 matches covering the SPFL, Scottish Cup and two Europa League ties against Valencia.
After a goal for Scotland against Cyprus Burke can now look forward to working with Dowling who at the age of 40 has already worked at Watford and Nottingham Forest, where he spent eight months, in a Director of Football role.
While Burke was away from The Hawthorns Darren Moore was sacked, a decision that surprised most pundits who follow The Championship where managers rarely complete two full seasons.
Moore had West Brom in a play-off position, one that they retained before losing out on penalties to Aston Villa in the semi-final of the play-off.
After joining West Brom in October Dowling couldn’t have been more complimentary about Moore, five months later he was handing over his P45.
Speaking to the Nottingham Post about the West Brom boss Dowling said:
He knows how I work and I know how he works. It’s about having someone you feel comfortable with. Sporting director and head coach need to talk daily, either face to face or on the phone.
Sometimes you come along a head coach where that doesn’t happen and there’s friction. You want daily updates and you want them to bounce ideas off you.
We’ve got that relationship and have previously spoken about football and different roles, before he was even promoted to Alan Pardew’s coaching staff. It’s been in the back of my mind that if an opportunity ever came to work with him again, it would work
Burke should watch his back when it comes to praise from the West Brom Sporting and Technical Director.
