Former West Brom Premier League manager lands new job in Spain's second tier

Former West Brom boss Pep Mel has been unveiled as the new first-team manager of CD Tenerife.

Mel will inherit a side that is currently rock bottom of Spanish football's second tier. They've picked up just one point from their opening five games, and suffered a 1-0 defeat to Eibar, which brought to an end Oscar Cano's reign which only began in June.

His appointment was confirmed on Tenerife's official club website which announced that he had signed a one-year contract. He returns to the club having managed them during the 2001/01 campaign.

Tenerife is his second job of the year having managed Almeria for 10 games. He was unable to stop them from being relegated as they finished second from bottom, though Mel did earn 12 points from the 30 available. Since leaving West Brom, he returned to Real Betis, had a spell at Deportivo La Coruna, and also managed Las Plamas, Malaga, and OFI (Crete).

Baggies fans will remember him for his spell in charge at the Hawthorns in the 2013/14 season. He tried to overhaul the playing style after succeeding Steve Clarke, but according to Ben Foster, the players went against his wishes, and expressed their displeasure at the changes expected of them.

It ultimately ended up with Keith Downing overseeing training sessions, whilst Mel would conduct press conference duties, and be present on the touchline. He oversaw 17 games, winning just three times, suffering eight defeats and also six draws. West Brom ended up finishing three points above Norwich City.

"We had to go to the manager and we had to go to Keith and say this isn't working," revealed Foster who was speaking to James Lawrence Allcott.

"We can no do this anymore. At this point we have to say, right Keith, you are going to have to revert to doing it the way we know best. So he would basically jump and be a joint manager with Pepe Mel.

"Pepe Mel would be the face of it, Keith Downing would take the training session and instruct everything.

"We ended up winning a load of games, managed to stave off relegation. That is one of the only times where I've seen it where we've had to actually go 'we're not going to play that style of football."