West Brom appoint Sam Allardyce as Slaven Bilic's replacement

New manager given 18-month contract, making it the eighth Premier League club he has managed

Sam Allardyce has been appointed as West Brom manager on an 18-month deal. PA

West Bromwich Albion have appointed Sam Allardyce as manager after sacking Slaven Bilic earlier on Wednesday.

The club said in a statement Allardyce had agreed an 18-month contract.

Delivering West Brom's best result of the season was not enough to save Bilic from becoming the first Premier League manager to be fired.

Bilic lost his job a day after West Brom drew 1-1 at Manchester City with the kind of hard-working display that showed his players had not given up on their manager.

He was replaced by Allardyce, 66, who has been out of work since May 2018 but has a reputation for saving teams from relegation. West Brom will be the eighth Premier League club he has managed.

“In Sam we have a man who has a proven Premier League pedigree with a track record of improving every club he has managed,” West Brom’s sporting and technical director, Luke Dowling, said.

Allardyce will take training on Thursday ahead of his first game in charge, at Aston Villa on Sunday.

West Brom are in next-to-last place in the Premier League after collecting only seven points from their opening 13 games in the first season back in the top division.

Bilic was in charge at West Brom for 18 months, leading the team to promotion from the Championship at the end of his first season as their manager.

After struggling to sign any top-quality players in the offseason, West Brom found the transition to the Premier League hard, winning only one match — against last-place Sheffield United — and conceding a league-high 26 goals.