West Brom in talks with 53-year-old Dutchman to succeed Carlos Corberan as manager | OneFootball

West Brom are in discussions with a former assistant of Erik Ten Hag.

West Bromwich Albion are in initial talks with Rene Hake about the head coach vacancy at The Hawthorns.

This is according to transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano, who believes the Baggies have made the former Manchester United assistant one of their top targets.

Albion are currently sitting in sixth place in the Championship, having picked up 8 points from the last 15 available.

However, they are currently without a head coach following Carlos Corberan's departure to La Liga side Valencia on Christmas Eve.

Having achieved strong results under challenging circumstances, Corberan's tenure will be a tough act to follow for anyone stepping into the role.

If Rene Hake is offered the position, he will be eager to prove he is capable of continuing the club's play-off bid as they look to return to the Premier League at the fourth time of asking.

Rene Hake in talks with West Brom over managerial vacancy

As detailed in the aforementioned post on X (formerly Twitter), Albion are in talks with Hake over the vacancy at The Hawthorns.

Across his career, the 53-year-old has had multiple jobs both as a manager and an assistant, most recently at Manchester United, where he joined up with Erik ten Hag in the summer of 2024.

Unfortunately, a string of bad results saw Ten Hag and his backroom staff sacked, meaning that Hake is currently out of a job.

According to Romano, discussions are currently ongoing between the two parties, who is one of the three main candidates for the role.

At present, it is not understood who the other two contenders are, but if they're still yet to be interviewed, then the process may continue in the coming weeks.

Rene Hake's managerial career

Prior to his move to Old Trafford, Hake had multiple jobs in Dutch football.

Starting his career in various youth teams, his first break in men's management was at FC Emmen, where he enjoyed two years as head coach.

More recently, the former SC Oranje player has been in charge at FC Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles. Across these two jobs, he had a points per game record of 1.50 and 1.37 respectively, which isn't superb when considering the level of the Eredivisie.

A move to West Brom could prove challenging then, but if he can get a similar level out of the players as Corberan did, then you would imagine they would be around the play-offs come May.