When West Brom called me I told my wife we needed to go

West Brom boss Carlos Corberan will mark two years in the job at The Hawthorns at the end of October

There were two stand-out points in Carlos Corberan’s mind, as he took in the request to be interviewed by West Bromwich Albion. It was a little over two years ago – Corberan will celebrate his second anniversary at The Hawthorns at the end of this month – and he had returned to his native Spain.

It’s hard to believe now, such is the job he has done at Albion, and previously at Huddersfield Town, too, but Corberan was left licking his wounds after an unexpectedly short and ill-fated reign in Greece with Olympiacos; so soon after deciding to leave Huddersfield, who he’d led to the Championship play-off final against all odds, he informed his wife, Claudia, he’d be taking a break from work.

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Their first son, Marcos, was only a baby at the time. Revisiting Spain with his young family, Corberan intended to relax and recuperate, surrounded by friends and family, after a testing few years which had really seen his managerial career explode into life. Then the phone rang. An opportunity beckoned, one he admits he simply couldn’t decline. Corberan turned on his heel and made for England again.

Based purely on the league table alone, Albion wouldn’t have been much of a catch at the time; interim boss Richard Beale had brought light relief in the form of a well earned victory at Reading, a short-term tonic following the desperate run of form under predecessor Steve Bruce prior to that. Beale, though, oversaw successive defeats and then Corberan himself watched on as the Baggies were turned over in his first game. They were rock bottom.

In the near two years since, the transformation has been remarkable. Indeed only promotion by now would’ve represented more of a success than what Corberan has managed to achieve. Albion are now widely considered to be excellently coached and difficult to break down. Their home record under Corberan – winning 27 and losing seven of 43 – has been superb.

Indeed it is The Hawthorns itself which lingers in Corberan’s memory and made the interview opportunity, presented with a shot at succeeding Bruce, such an enticing invitation. He assisted Marcelo Bielsa in helping Leeds United secure promotion, along with Slaven Bilic’s Albion, in 2020 and on New Year’s Day of that year, as the two sides drew 1-1, the atmosphere generated remains fixed in Corberan’s mind.

Coupled with the fact that he considered Albion – who spent eight years on the bounce prior to relegation in 2018 in the Premier League – to be a football club which possessed top flight pedigree, it was a no brainer. Corberan reveals he might’ve headed to England before joining Leeds, but he remains wholly satisfied, proud and grateful for how his career and life in England has panned out.

“When I was watching West Bromwich, it has always been a Premier League club, but because of my work as an assistant coach, I was working with a coach and we had two or three options to come to the Championship – we are talking about 2010, 2012, this moment in time,” Corberan recalls. “I had a couple of possibilities to come to England as an assistant.

“I was watching Premier League games, but I was in the lucky position to start, at 22, 23 years old in Villarreal to be in a professional environment and then into the first-team. Now I am 41, so time flies! I am talking about 15, 16 years ago. Now, everything changes. Watching Premier League around the world is easy. Before, it was a little bit more difficult.

“You were watching Premier League games, but it was maybe one game, not every single game. You have an idea of the clubs as clubs, but not in detail. In my mind there are plenty of clubs I would put in the same pack – big Premier League clubs. After my knowledge is of the Championship, from 15 years ago.

“When you have possibilities to go to some clubs, I was watching matches – but never West Bromwich, because they were different teams. What impacted me about West Bromwich, knowing they were a Premier League club, the first time I came here it impressed me a lot, when I came with Leeds.

“In this moment I was thinking ‘poof, what a club!’ I felt this now. Sometimes you get the habit and you can forget about this, but I never forget that day. It impressed me a lot, the feeling of the stadium. You think ‘this is why they were in the Premier League’. I promise you that when I finished in Olympiacos – I’d been to Cyprus, and Saudi Arabia, and then Leeds and two years with Bielsa, after two years at Huddersfield and then Olympiacos – I was thinking ‘Carlos…calm’. Now is the moment to stop.

“After I stopped, the next weekend I received an offer to coach a team from another country. After I received another possibility to come back to the Championship. I was thinking it wasn’t the moment – I was going to prioritise my family, give them the time I otherwise couldn’t give them and take time to rest. Then appeared a couple of ideas, of Championship clubs – interest, not offers.

“Then, I wanted to go to Spain to rest. Then appeared the option to go to West Bromwich. I was like ‘come on, let’s go there and make our best’. The day I flew to Spain, I received a call to make an interview with West Bromwich. That day I was supposed to be with family and friends was the day of the interview so I didn’t see them! I came here. My mood changed straight away.

“If I didn’t have the memories of West Bromwich as a club in the Premier League, and the impact they had on me when I was with Leeds in the Championship, I might’ve said no, it’s still not the moment. Because it’s West Bromwich, I said to my wife I can’t say no to them! I need to go. No way I can say no to this.”

Carlos has reminisced, but he is also firmly looking ahead. Not one to dwell on achievements, he will continue to work towards hauling Albion nearer to where he believes they ought to be. With the significant change at the head of the club which has taken place earlier this year, he now considers that ambition to be as realistic as ever – but Albion hasn’t otherwise changed in his eyes.

“With the change of the owner changed the project of the club,” Corberan reflects. “It’s true that this club, in the previous year, was not in the financial challenge that this year the club was in, it had to reset. Now, a new owner with a new project, new ideas and different ways to make things – it’s still West Bromwich and it’s still a massive club, not because of us who occupy the chairs in the club now.

“I occupy the chair of the coach, there are chairs for the owner and others, but West Bromwich is bigger than any of us. The dimension of this is the same, but the way to try and put the club where we want it to be, where it deserves to be, is different.

“West Bromwich, as soon as you start to have the contact with the club, when you go to the stadium and know the history of the club, it’s a club which is massive. The work is must always be of our best to help the club to get to where we think it needs to be. After this process, we have more possibilities.

“One thing that makes England a special country in terms of football, there are a lot of clubs, massive clubs. What makes me feel proud is that I am at one of these big British football clubs. It is always our dream, and never it can change, to put this club where we want to put it.”

On a personal level, Corberan loves living in England and remains appreciative of what he has, at home and in a professional sense, and what he says the UK has given him as a Spanish native; he is settled with his family, who welcomed baby Dario into the world in February, and adds that nothing would make him happier than to enjoy an extensive and fruitful tenure, as he prepares to pass the two-year mark, at The Hawthorns in the years to come.

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“I used to think I was a young coach, but now you see a different age of players and I am one of the experienced ones in a short space of time! It feels only yesterday I was appointed as Huddersfield coach and now there have been more years,” he adds. “I can only tell you that making a career in this club will be one thing that would make me happy – to extend my career in this club. It would make me very, very happy.

“My two sons are British and Spanish, both born here. I can stay here, I am one of those people not from England who can make his life in England. Not everyone who is not British can do it, because after Brexit it changed, but my two children are both able to make their lives here – and can even play for the national team!

“Me and my wife are both Spanish but they both have a nationality I don’t have! Imagine how many things this country has given to me. England. I have had the opportunity to develop me as a coach, a first coach. I met my wife here. My two children were born here. I am very pleased to have the possibility to come here.”