West Brom boss Carlos Corberan issues promotion rallying call

The Baggies head coach saw his side tackle one of the division’s toughest fixtures today, a lunchtime clash at Leicester, one of four sides gunning for the top two places.

Including Leicester Albion have three fixtures left, with Sheffield Wednesday and Preston to come, to rubber-stamp a top-six position they have held for much of the campaign.

Despite Albion’s impressive consistency, Corberan doubled down on the achievement of competing with the runners and riders for Premier League promotion. It is a more notable effort particularly amid the backdrop of Albion’s financial situation post-Guochuan Lai.

Animated by the challenge of the subject, Corberan said: “If you tell me do I want to do this as soon as possible? No – I want to win every single game.

“Do I want to win tomorrow? Of course. Is it the target you have? Yes. Do you know the difficulty? Yes. But in life we cannot expect to achieve things just in an easy way.

“Why? Because to achieve something like making the play-offs is something difficult that many clubs are spending a lot of money trying to achieve. So when something is special, it is not easy. Many clubs are here fighting for direct (automatic) promotion. If it would be easy...look at how Leicester are right now. Why? Because it is not easy, it is very complicated.

“Would Leicester have liked to achieve it before? Probably everyone (would), but I don’t expect anything easy, I don’t expect to achieve anything special in an easy way. This is not life and this is not football.

“I would like to achieve what we want to achieve the day we achieve it. If we achieve in the last second of the last game I would be happy to achieve! That would be more of a challenge, yes, but football is a challenge. To achieve something important in the Championship is very difficult.”

While Albion have been unable to reel in the division’s top four this term, impressive consistency levels have kept fellow play-off chasers at bay. Those looking to push and overcome the Baggies have fallen away as form has come and gone.

“We have two teams promoted, four play in the play-offs, the other 18 teams are out, teams that probably speculate to go for the play-offs are fighting now to not get relegated. So it means how difficult and how exciting the Championship is. Can you expect it in an easy way? I don’t,” Corberan added. “I am ready to fight until the last second of the last game.

“That is my mentality.”