Comment: Giuliano Terraneo has got a big job ahead of him at West Brom

Yet the most common response from fans to yesterday’s unveiling of Albion’s new technical consultant will have been: “Giuliano who?”

Make no mistake, the arrival of Giuliano Terraneo at The Hawthorns has added another layer of intrigue to a period in the club’s history which already promised to be fascinating.

Here is a man whose prior experience as a sporting director is at the very top level of the game, at clubs who battle it out on the European stage year-in, year-out.

Yet now he is tasked with overhauling Albion’s squad in preparation for life in the Championship.

Terraneo is understood to be a keen student of the English game and though he has never worked on these shores before, it is believed the former goalkeeper came close to joining Manchester United during a playing career which spanned more than 500 appearances and included stints at AC Milan and Lazio, among others.

The Italian’s CV since the end of his playing days is impressive, beginning with a seven-year stint as general director at hometown club Monza before moving on to Lazio and Inter Milan.

In 2003, he almost became sporting director of Barcelona, while Terraneo’s most recent role, until 2016, was with Turkish giants Fenerbache.

His arrival two years later at The Hawthorns has been driven from China and the ownership group around Guochuan Lai.

It is perhaps the latest indication of the owner’s desire to take a firmer grip on the Baggies after the season from hell.

It also confirms the club’s commitment to the sporting director model, despite recent mixed results.

Indeed, one of Terraneo’s tasks will be sourcing a permanent appointment for the position.

Certainly, there may be a sense of back to the drawing board in terms of predicting how the next few weeks and months will play out.

Terraneo’s contacts are very different those of the man he has replaced, Nick Hammond. Suddenly, there are a whole new group of names in the frame to be the club’s next head coach, as witnessed by Patrick Kluivert’s march up the betting market yesterday afternoon.

Yet it is understood those candidates who were already being considered – the likes of Derek McInnes, Dean Smith and Michael Appleton – remain very much in contention.

Terraneo is acutely aware of the need to find the right fit for Albion, hence his comment yesterday of the club’s ‘own personality’ being key to recruitment.

Eyes were instantly drawn to his work at Lazio and Inter Milan, where he was responsible for Ronaldo, Clarence Seedorf and Fabio Cannavaro among others.

Yet far more applicable to Albion’s current situation is the early part of Terraneo’s post-playing career, at hometown club Monza.

It was there he helped launch the careers of stars like Roberto Baggio, Aldo Serena and Christian Abbiati.

Signing established names is all well and good. But fans will be hoping Terraneo can supply the Baggies with some young continental gems, who can in turn hack it in the Championship.

The announcement of his appointment came just hours after Hammond’s exit, after two years as technical director, was confirmed.

Unsurprising as his exit might have been, there are many inside the club who feel the 50-year-old never fully got the chance to put his skills to the test, such was the extent to which he became sidelined by Tony Pulis.

A season such as this will, however, always lead to casualties.

Just like John Williams and Martin Goodman before him, Hammond was never going to escape his part – no matter how prominent – in last summer’s disastrous spending spree, or the ill-fated appointment of Alan Pardew as Pulis’s replacement.

Hammond’s fate was finally sealed earlier this week during a meeting of chief executive Mark Jenkins and club director Li Piuye.

Yet he appeared on borrowed time from the moment a passionate Jenkins criticised the club’s recruitment last month and cited the need to bring in ‘the right people’.

In Giuliano Terraneo, Albion will hope to have done just that.