Ex-Hibs + Sunderland boss speaks with EFL club over boss vacancy as talks this week give him ultimate feeling

A former Hibs and Sunderland boss has spoken to an EFL club over a managerial vacancy.

West Brom have been looking for a new gaffer after Carlos Corberan’s exit to Valencia. They have been linked with a few names but it’s been claimed by Birmingham World that Tony Mowbray is a name they have ‘spoke’ to over taking the role.

He has been out of football since leaving Birmingham City amid health issues. And it is suggested Mowbray had the ultimate feeling that he “was flattered but feels it wasn’t the right time due to his recent health concerns.” The claims initially stated “West Brom spoke to Tony Mowbray over vacant managerial position this week.” Mowbray was previously West Brom boss between 2006-2009 and they rank amongst his ex-clubs.

His managerial career started at Hibs between 2004-2006, an era beloved by fans at Easter Road. Hibs finished in the top four of the SPL in his two full seasons in charge, the first time since Eddie Turnbull's stint in the hotseat that they had managed this in the top flight in consecutive seasons.

Mowbray then departed for the Baggies and then had time at Celtic, Middlesbrough, Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers. He then moved to Sunderland where he became a beloved figure over just a year in charge, leading a Championship play-off charge. His next gig was at Birmingham City which was vacated amid health issues.

Speaking in November last year on his recent battle with bowel cancer, Mowbray said: “It’s been the toughest year of my life, of our lives because you talk as a family really. Out of the blue my illness was diagnosed. I was still Sunderland manager this time a year ago and my house got burgled a year yesterday.

“I was at Sunderland in a board meeting and I got a call from my young son so I left that meeting and raced home to see the house full of police officers and everything. So the start of this year started really badly for us as a family. And then pretty strangely - but I understand football – I lost my job at Sunderland.

“I then had an amazing phone call and meeting about joining Birmingham City and the plans that football club had, they saw me as the guy who could bring that together and take that on a journey hopefully back to the Premier League and I was happy to do that.

“And then my world came crashing down really. I’d had a doctors’ appointment through the League Managers Association to go to Manchester to have a check over – you have one every year, like a full-body MOT really, everything, your hearing, your eyesight, everything. And I went along and out of the blue... part of it was having a colonoscopy, because I’d mentioned that I was having some issues.

"The way I would go to the toilet had changed so they had a look and I got diagnosed with bowel cancer out of nowhere really. It’s quite shattering. Unfortunately ten days later I was in a hospital bed in Manchester having a ten-hour operation and my life changed really. When you get an illness like I’ve got it’s about the family really.

"I remember sitting in a hospital bed in Manchester and my kids had tears in their eyes, not sure if I was going to get through it or not to be honest - I was very, very ill. I did come home from that and there was a period when I was very up and down. Some days I was feeling great and other days I would collapse and black out and find myself on the kitchen floor.

“I sat down with my wife and phoned the chief executive at Birmingham and told him that health and family is what life’s about and I need to get myself right so I left that job. I would like to say on record that both Sunderland and Birmingham City have been amazing to me. It’s been a year without work, without money, and yet those football clubs have looked after me and honoured the contracts that I’d signed.

“That’s quite humbling that people are giving me money, not for working for them, but because I signed a contract in good faith and they deserve a mention that they’ve been so fantastic for me and my family.”