SAMMY Lee is expected to be formally installed as Wanderers' new assistant manager by the end of the week.
The former Liverpool and England midfielder, is leaving his full-time coaching role with England after being hand-picked by Sam Allardyce to be his new right hand man following the departures last week of his assistant, Phil Brown, and first team coach, Neil McDonald.
Neither Wanderers nor the Football Association have made any official comment on the matter but everything has been agreed - the 46-year-old will continue to work with the national team on a part-time basis - and Lee is expected to link up with the Wanderers squad at their training camp in Switzerland at the weekend.
The squad left on Wednesday for the first phase of their pre-season training programme without Allardyce, who stayed behind to press ahead with transfer negotiations.
Mark Taylor, the club's head of sports science and medicine, will take charge of the squad until Lee arrives.
The loss of Brown, who was appointed manager of Derby County on Friday, and McDonald, who has joined Crystal Palace as assistant to manager, Ian Dowie, has given Allardyce the opportunity to revamp his backroom team.
The manager will wait until Lee is on board before appointing a first team coach but also plans an additional appointment - a development coach - a role he hopes will pay dividends as Wanderers look to consolidate their position as one of the Premiership's leading lights.
"With Phil and Macca leaving, it has given me the chance to restructure the backroom staff," Allardyce said. "It's a major reconstruction which has to be done carefully. If you look at it as a business, which is what football is these days, we've lost two of our executives, two key heads of department, and it's important we replace them with the right people.
"These appointments will be the most important signings I make this summer."
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