Swindon Town have announced the appointment of former West Bromwich Albion coach Jimmy Shan as the club’s new assistant head coach.

The 45-year-old left his role as a first-team coach at Huddersfield Town earlier this season, previously spending over a decade in various coaching roles with West Brom, working his way from an academy coach to assistant manager, his time at the Hawthorns even included a spell as caretaker manager between the reigns of Darren Moore and Slaven Bilic.

During that caretaker stint, Shan guided West Brom into the Championship playoffs with six wins out of ten before eventually losing on penalties in the semi-finals to Jack Grealish and eventual winners Aston Villa.

Shan has since spent time as interim manager of Kidderminster Harriers, as manager of Solihull Moors, and as assistant manager at Rochdale during the 2021/22 season.

Having been part of Moore’s coaching staff at West Brom, he followed him to Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield, where he remained until January, prior to the appointment of Andre Breitenreiter.

Swindon’s Head of Football Jamie Russell was involved in the academy set-up with the Baggies at the same time as Shan where the two crossed paths.

Interim head coach Gavin Gunning said that he was pleased to be able to bring someone in to lighten the load on him and focus on his other responsibilities.

He said: “We have been speaking to Jimmy for a bit now, it is tough when you are trying to do everything by yourself, so Jimmy will give me a hand with that and I will be able to focus more on different aspects. It is a big help.

“I have known him for a little while and he lives near me, with him being out of work I thought it would be a good fit as he has good experience, good knowledge of the game, and he is good to have around the place.

“He has a different outlook because he is just seeing the players afresh, so if players have slipped into doing something that you miss because you see them every day, then he can catch that, so it is always good to have a new set of eyes and one that knows the game really well.

“It is always good for players to have a fresh voice, they might have different ideas and different coaching sessions, and add different aspects of the game.”