Wednesday 14 January 2015 18:42, UK
Former Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham boss Gerry Francis has confirmed he will join Tony Pulis at West Bromwich Albion.
Francis was part of the backroom staff assembled by Pulis at Stoke and Crystal Palace, where he worked mainly as a defensive coach.
And the 63-year-old revealed he has been helping out on a part-time basis at the Hawthorns since the FA Cup tie against Gateshead on 3 January.
I’m just doing the coaching two days a week and obviously I’ll be at all the games, and doing very, very similar to what I’ve done at Crystal Palace and Stoke.
Speaking to the Morning View on Sky Sports News HQ, Francis said: "I’ve been there for some time now and it’s just really deciding whether I was going to do what I did at Crystal Palace and Stoke for Tony, same sort of part-time deal and get back to the travelling again. Obviously I’ve agreed to do that.
“I’m just doing the coaching two days a week and obviously I’ll be at all the games, and doing very, very similar to what I’ve done at Crystal Palace and Stoke.”
Francis is hopeful Pulis can build on a promising start at West Brom, and expects another coaching appointment in the near future.
Confirmation of Francis’ arrival comes within hours of Paul Jewell’s seemingly acrimonious departure from Albion, just a week after joining the Premier League club.
The ex-Wigan boss has announced he is taking legal action against West Brom, but Francis claims he is baffled by Jewell’s exit.
“I’ve no idea. He was there on Saturday, I was there on Saturday at the game, I don’t really know what the situation is from that point of view and I only found out myself last night,” he said.
“If Paul’s left I’d imagine Tony will be bringing another coach in. We’ve had a good start. We drew at West Ham, we beat Gateshead in the FA Cup and managed to beat Hull, which was a really important result for us on Saturday.
“What we tend to do is look at the squad, look at the players, and decide to play a certain way based on what we’ve got.
“And also do loads and loads of work on the training pitch coaching-wise, offensively and defensively, and that’s basically what we’ve done at Crystal Palace and Stoke and that’s what we’ll be doing here.”
