Paul Barber believes Albion fans and the media have seen the communication skills which help make Fabian Huerzeler the man to take them forward.

The chief executive and deputy chairman gave some insight into the conversations which preceded, and followed, the appointment of the new head coach.

Huerzeler was given every chance to grill the top men at the club about what working for them would mean.

That was on top of the questions Barber, chairman Tony Bloom and technical director David Weir had for him.

Asked for how long conversations took place, Barber said: “Hours – and probably more than Fabian would like.

“The conversations have to be long because you want to cover a lot of things.

“You want to get to know the person, you want to understand the football philosophy, you want to understand the way the players are likely to respond to the way Fabian is likely to coach and likely to run the squad.

“You also want to spend time just allowing Fabian to ask us questions.

“I think it is really important that these things are two way.

“It is not just us interviewing Fabian, it is Fabian interviewing us.

“When you are a successful young coach and you have just won a championship, you are going to have choices and options.

“It is important for him to recognise we are a good option for him as well as him being a good option for us.

“We had dinner last night (Monday), we talked some more.

“We watched some football but this is all part of the process of making sure there is a really good fit.

“That Fabian feels that this an environment in which he feels he can succeed.”

Barber was speaking towards the end of Huerzeler’s assured first press conference on Tuesday.

By now, it was the part of proceedings when the cameras had been turned off but the questions kept coming from members of the written press.

Barber said: “As you have seen for yourselves, he is a great communicator.

“For me, the best coaches are always the best communicators.

“They can relate to people on lots of different levels, in lots of different ways.

“I was impressed, just talking to Fabian at dinner, how many names he had remembered from a few hours at the training ground.

“Staff who are going to be important behind the scenes but don’t necessarily have a high profile at the club.”

Huerzeler’s back-up team will be somewhat smaller than that who worked with Roberto De Zerbi.

Subject to work permits being secured, his assistant will be Jonas Scheuermann from Augsburg while goalkeeper coach Marco Knoop will follow him from St Pauli.

The fact Albion had to deal with a second German club to secure Scheuermann’s services added another layer to the process of getting the coaching team in place. The presence of Knoop alongside Jack Stern is in line with what has happened with previous bosses.

Stern worked with Ricard Segarra while De Zerbi was head coach.

Before that he teamed up with Ben Roberts under Potter’s stewardship.

Max Lesser is also on board as tactical analyst.

Barber said: “We are looking at bring in three people for Fabian.

“These people are identified and we are working through the process.

“We have got Andrew Crofts here and Jack Stern as part of the team as well as the analysis team we have got.

“We always like to keep a solid group around the first team so when there is, if there is, a changes of head coach, the whole club doesn’t become disrupted in a way that sometimes happens.

“Roberto had a particularly large group of coaching staff with him.

“All of them were good guys, all of them fitted in really well here.

“Fabian has a smaller group and that’s football these days.

“It varies from coach to coach.”