Dean Smith is being targeted by West Brom as they start to seriously consider relegation from the Premier League.

According to the Telegraph, West Brom are holding crisis talks with Alan Pardew due to their abysmal form and Smith is listed as a potential replacement. West Brom's latest match was a 4-1 home defeat to Leicester City as they disintegrated after a promising start.

The idea behind this is that a new manager will have additional time to plan a promotion push for next season because the club naturally wants to avoid staying in the Championship for a prolonged amount of time, due to the Premier League TV rights income they would miss out on.

Smith has impressed in his time at Brentford. He has worked well with the club's impressive scouting department to form some exciting attacking teams even though they have limited resources at their disposal.

The Verdict

Planning for the long-term should always be welcomed and this is definitely what the West Brom board is doing.

The appointment of Alan Pardew was disappointing because there were plenty of promising managers who were overlooked even though they deserved a chance in the Premier League. However, they appear to have learned from that mistake.

Bringing in an innovative manager who is used to working within certain limits is a good move especially because Smith has plenty of experience at managing in the Championship. Having that added time to prepare and adjust to Smith's style of play could be the advantage that West Brom need to go straight back up assuming they get relegated which looks likely.