West Brom had the last laugh despite sting of decision involving Preston North End | OneFootball

Alex Neil would have regretted not taking the West Brom job when it was available in 2019.

During the 2018-19 season, West Brom were on the lookout for a new permanent manager following the departure of club legend Darren Moore.

The Albion icon exited The Hawthorns in March 2019 after a disappointing 1-1 draw with then second-tier basement boys Ipswich Town.

The project at West Brom was a very attractive one at the time, particularly when the Baggies squad consisted of proven Championship marksmen in Jay Rodriguez and Dwight Gayle, who netted a combined 45 goals over the course of that term.

In the end, Albion were unable to appoint a new manager, electing to put Jimmy Shan in caretaker charge for the remainder of the campaign.

The Baggies eventually finished fourth to reach the play-offs, although in another season it could have been so much more with the quality of players Shan had at his disposal.

It set up a mouthwatering West Midlands derby against Aston Villa in the semi-final, but it unravelled at Villa Park, as the Baggies surrendered Gayle’s opener to lose 2-1, with the frontman then given his marching orders and missing the crucial second leg.

Despite a valiant effort by Albion to get back level in the second leg and contending with Chris Brunt’s sending off, the Baggies were eventually edged out on penalties, leaving the club resigned to a second consecutive season in the second-tier.

During the time when Moore departed, Albion had looked at an extensive list of candidates, convinced that they needed a more experienced figure to replace Shan with after suffering defeats to Millwall and Bristol City that killed their hopes of achieving automatic promotion.

The Baggies ended up narrowing it down to Slavisa Jokanovic and Alex Neil, with the latter Albion’s preferred target.

But Neil would go on to make a massive U-turn and reject the approach, something he will most likely regret for the rest of his career given what the Black Country outfit managed to achieve under Slaven Bilic the following campaign.

Alex Neil’s snub of vacant West Brom job

After relieving Darren Moore of his duties in the second week of March 2019, it took the Albion hierarchy exactly a month to narrow it down to their two final candidates for the position.

One was ex-Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic, but the Baggies' hierarchy earmarked Alex Neil as the boss to arrive and push Albion back to the promised land of the Premier League.

The Telegraph had reported at the time that West Brom offered Neil the chance to take over at B71, with the club prepared to pay £650,000 fee in compensation to earn his services.

Albion were confident of landing Neil too. Preston’s hopes of a top six finish were all but over, while he had seen the quality on display from the West Brom team when his Preston side suffered a convincing 4-1 defeat at The Hawthorns.

Neil incidentally blamed speculation linking him with the Albion job as the reason why his side lost so heavily, and it was all expected to go according to plan that the Scotsman would swap Lancashire for the West Midlands.

But just a day on from their hiding at The Hawthorns, a dramatic change of events ensued as Neil agreed and signed a new three-year contract at Deepdale, putting an end to any chance of taking the Albion hotseat.

After signing his new contract, Neil said: “It has been a difficult few days working in a situation where the club and I had no control over what has been said, but I am absolutely delighted to be able to commit my future to the club and to continue with the project we have been working on.”

Looking back, Alex Neil is sure to regret not taking on the West Brom job due to what unfolded the following season.

Former West Ham boss Slaven Bilic made the leap to The Hawthorns in his first-ever Championship managerial role in the summer of 2019, and he won over the hearts of the Albion faithful due to his fiery personality and ability to get his team playing front-footed and entertaining football.

The Baggies were a cut above so many teams in the division that year, with the arrivals of Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana giving Albion a much-needed spark in the final third after previously losing so much quality in the forward department.

Up until the season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Baggies looked certain to get back up to the big time in comfortable fashion, but the Black Country outfit returned after 105 days of inactivity looking unfit and rusty, demonstrated in a goalless draw against Birmingham City.

Eventually, Albion and Bilic hobbled over the line to earn promotion, despite a rocky period of form, sealing their place back in the big time with a draw on the final day against Queens Park Rangers.

For Alex Neil at Preston, he had his Lilywhites situated inside the top six when the season was temporarily halted, and similarly, his side crumbled on their return, failing to stay inside the play-offs and have a shot at promotion themselves.

Neil would have surely looked at what Albion achieved with Bilic and thought about what could have been, with the Scotsman potentially able to realise his Premier League ambitions again if he’d had joined the club in the previous campaign.

Neil was eventually sacked by Preston in March 2021, but despite the disappointment of that, he may have been grateful for not being in charge of Albion given what unfolded in the Premier League. The Baggies’ poor recruitment and lack of squad depth was paramount to the club making an immediate return to the Championship.

Left desperately unequipped to face England’s elite sides, Bilic lasted just 13 top-flight games, gathering only seven points, and it could have been a similar fate for Neil, who too would have likely been left short with the players at his disposal.

Overall, West Brom did have the last laugh with Neil turning their approach down, as the ex-Norwich City boss missed out on putting another promotion onto his CV and seeing if he had what it took to be a top-class Premier League coach.