Swift, Wallace, Corberan and the phone call Tony Mowbray made to accelerate West Brom talks

New West Bromwich Albion boss Tony Mowbray spoke to the press ahead of his side's trip to former club Middlesbrough this evening. At his second unveiling on Monday, Mowbray discussed a number of different subjects, including his backroom staff, the club's fringe players and on his predecessor, the departed Carlos Corberan...

Have you spoken to Carlos?

"No, he's got his hands full! I got on well with Carlos. We used to have long chats after football matches. There was a level of respect for the way our teams played, and he's a very tactical coach. At Huddersfield, as well, we had some long chats. I got on well with him, but I'd never seen him work.

"I could feel the intensity around what he does, but I haven't been in touch with him. That first game was against Real Madrid, wasn't it? I've been busy myself. I don't know, but Valencia is obviously a huge football club, he'll have an affinity with it, it's where he's from and he probably wants to restore it to where it should be competing, at the top end of the division.

"I wish him only well. For the players here, I can feel it - it's different. It's not better, it's not worse I don't think, it's just different. I just have to be careful not to chuck all the good stuff away, because Carlos brought lots of really good stuff. Moving forward, hopefully we can continue to score good goals - and more goals."

On Swift and Wallace

"What I found at this club, there's not too many of them [moaners or sulkers] and yet from the outside looking in I might be thinking, because I'm on record, I've said I always thought Jed Wallace was one of the best players in the league. What a footballer, at Millwall. A one-man show really. He was devastating.

"Yet here I find him on the fringes of the team, on the cusp of the team. Is he alright? What's he feeling? So I sit down with Jed and I'll talk to him about my thoughts and what I'm thinking. Same with John Swift. You can throw John into that as well. What a footballer at Reading.

"Double figure goals most years. What a player. I've already seen how technical he is and how brilliant he is with the football. Are they okay? I'll talk to them. We'll have a cup of tea, sit down. They'll hopefully feel that I'm a decent human being. I'm here to win football matches."

On Mark Venus

"I've only ever taken Veno with me in any football club from 2004, in taking him to Edinburgh. He's different to me, I'm emotional and want to feel the human being, and he's Xs and Os and if you push the left back in there and you bring him inside and you push him on, drop him in here...he's always thinking tactics, always thinking football, and it works.

"I think, and I listen to him, sometimes I'll say, listen mate, I'm not doing that, forget it, and he doesn't argue, he doesn't sulk, he just gets on with the next one. I like to have somebody to bounce off. If you've lost a couple of games, what do we need? What's missing? What are we doing wrong? He generally would go to me 'well I've told you, we need more attacking issues, push the 8 on, drop the 6 round a little bit and bring the 4 back inside, and it'll be great, these players are good'. Then we go, alright let's try it, and we win 3-0 and then we're off again.

"He watches football differently from how I watch it, and there's a respect level for both of us for what we do I think, and I try to connect with the players and get them to want to play and want to enjoy it and be brave, and he's the one who's probably through there now, with the video clips."

On chasing up his scan results

"I phoned the doctor up. You get sent letters - 'this procedure is going to take place on this day'. The diagnosis from my scan was going to be six days after the scan, and I failed to understand why, really. I phoned him up and asked him if there was a process that I could learn the scan results quicker.

I would say, over the last six to eight weeks, I've had enquiries from maybe five or six football clubs about, are you ready, what is your situation, are you willing to have a discussion? It was always, no, I've got scans in four weeks' time, no, I've got scans in fortnight's time, what's the point of me discussing a job if I then have a scan and I have to go back on to treatment? So, I don't think it's wise for us to even discuss it.

"Then when I got to the point, I knew that in a few days I was having a scan, I phoned my doctor. I said could you not let me know quicker than six days? He said he would try and so, as I'm driving home from the scan, that night at half past eight it was, it was pitch black, my wife was driving, I was sitting in the car, and the phone rang and it was Jonathan, it was Mr Wilde, and he'd got the results.

"He actually told me that the head radiologist at the hospital was actually Colin Bell's son. So, there's a football connection running right through it, you see. I'm thinking oh, that was good, and Colin Bell's son had just phoned him with it all clear, the scans look perfect, everything looks great, and I just wanted to let you know, because you had said to me, can we learn quicker than six days' time?

"So, that's how it happened, really, and I phoned my advisor and said, listen, I've just had the call from the doctor, I don't know whether you need to do anything with the information, but everything is all good, everything is clear, I am ready to talk to anybody. I was excited, like a kid in a sweet shop, really, I was ready to go, because I'd known for maybe two months, six weeks, I'm ready.

"I felt ready, my body was telling me I was ready, there were no twinges, there was no fatigue, there was no tiredness, I wasn't blowing hard when I was walking the dog. Everything was fine, I was full of energy, and I knew it was going to be all clear, but when it came, I just passed on the information, really, and then things moved pretty quickly from there."

Where will Albion finish under Mowbray this season? Tell us HERE