TONY Mowbray is leaving Albion to join Scottish Premier League club Celtic as manager.

He will officially take over the reins at Parkhead on Wednesday, July 1 and will be joined by assistant manager Mark Venus and first-team coach Peter Grant from The Hawthorns.

Mowbray joined the Baggies in October 2006 and guided them to the Championship play-off final in his first season, suffering a narrow 1-0 Wembley defeat by Derby.

A dramatic summer reshuffle of the squad resulted in his new-look team winning the club's first league title in 88 years as they topped the Coca-Cola Championship and won promotion to the Barclays Premier League.

Mowbray also took his side to Wembley again in the FA Cup semi-finals, where they were unfortunate to lose 1-0 to Premier League outfit Portsmouth.

Albion also chalked up a century of goals in all competitions for a second successive campaign.

The Baggies ultimately fell just short of escaping relegation last term but Mowbray won many plaudits for his team's free-flowing football.

Albion chairman Jeremy Peace said: "Tony leaves with our best wishes for a successful future in football.

"We will now concentrate fully on the important task of appointing a new manager who can take the club forward.

"As we stated last week, we did not want to lose Tony nor did we encourage Celtic's approach.

"However, there was a compensation clause in Tony's contract which has been met to our satisfaction and, after talks with Celtic, Tony has decided to join them." 

Subscribers to our SMS breaking news service got this story first. To sign up, simply text CLUB WBA to 88442 (texts cost 25p each) or click here.