New West Brom boss Di Matteo aiming to boing, boing Baggies back to top in style

02 July 2009 16:08
Roberto Di Matteo has vowed to continue West Brom's tradition of playing attractive football following his appointment at The Hawthorns. The 39-year-old signed a 12-month rolling contract to lead the Baggies, who were relegated from the Premier League under Tony Mowbray last season despite playing an attractive brand of football. Former MK Dons boss Di Matteo will adopt a similar mantra and said: "My philosophy is to play successful and winning football. "We have our view on how we would like to achieve that success. I think that will turn out to be a positive style of football and we'lltry to apply that to the Baggies this season." Di Matteo has brought Eddie Newton and Ade Mafe from MK Dons asassistant head coach and head of sports science respectively - and is grateful for the opportunity he had at stadium:mk. The Italian added: "All three of us are very hard-working people -and that's what you're going to get from us. There is a very good team here and we will try our best to go back up again. "I'm very grateful to MK Dons and the chairman for letting me goto take up this opportunity. The chairman had to be brave last season to give me a chance and it worked out well for both of us. "Now, I'm very much looking forward to taking the next step with West Bromwich Albion. I'm very happy to be here, it's a great club. I know there was a disappointment last season but I think there is potential to do very well here." Di Matteo is already closing in on his first signing, with Swindon striker Simon Cox having agreed terms on a move after the club agreed a fee believed to be in the region of £2million including add-ons. That deal was agreed after Cox initially caught the eye of Mowbray before his switch north of the border to Celtic. Cox scored 32 goals in all competitions last season and Di Matteo said: "I am aware of the deal and that we have agreed terms. The player will be coming in next week for a medical. "He is a very good player, has a very good scoring record and I am happy for the deal to go ahead."

Source: Daily_Mail