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Bombers right foot
When West Bromwich Albion were rescued from the abyss by Shilen Patel in February 2024, Premier League football was declared the ?primary objective?.
Founder members of the Football League, Albion were in a terrible state under previous owner Guochuan Lai with administration a very genuine prospect.
Repairing the damage to this famous old club was always going to be a slow build under Patel, the Florida-based businessman. But so far, after a turbulent season, dreams of returning to the top flight feel further away than ever with relegation to League One a far more likely proposition.
Dropping into the third tier of English football for only the second time in the club?s history is a real threat, with Albion just two points above the bottom three.
Amid growing doubts over the future of head coach Eric Ramsay, they are not sleepwalking to relegation but hurtling. In the space of seven days, they face league leaders Coventry and then fellow strugglers Charlton Athletic and Oxford United in a crucial run of fixtures.
Ramsay has lost four of his seven matches so far since replacing Ryan Mason last month and is still awaiting his first win. A former first-team coach at Manchester United, the 34-year-old was highly rated on the Uefa Pro License course but has found the transition to Championship football difficult so far. Results, team selection and even his post-match comments are coming under scrutiny from disillusioned supporters.
With severe financial restrictions owing to the EFL?s profit & sustainability rules, West Brom have to find a way of scrambling to survival before a big reset in the summer.
If Albion do avoid relegation, the shackles of Lai?s bewildering regime will be removed significantly at the end of this season, which offers hope for the future.
The current situation, however, is bleak. All the statistics and quirks of fate are the hallmarks of a club sliding to relegation. There have been 12 defeats from 17 away games in the Championship. Albion have not won an away game on a Saturday 3pm kick-off since August 2024 and they have scored just seven goals from open play at The Hawthorns this season.
Ramsay will have to mastermind a turnaround that few supporters are expecting. Those supporters are becoming increasingly concerned, and even the possibility of meeting bitter rivals Wolves next season ? for the first time in the second tier since April 2008 ? is under threat.
So how has it come to this? Firstly, it is important to point out that Patel has been heavily limited on what he can do by those profit & sustainability rules.
Huge financial losses under Lai, and the absence of parachute payments following relegation from the Premier League in 2021, have left the club operating cautiously.
Albion have been forced to sell players including Tom Fellows, Torbjorn Heggem, Darnell Furlong and Alex Palmer to avoid the risk of a points deduction.
This is why Albion fans are becoming more interested in the Leicester City crisis, claiming their club has taken decisive action while Leicester are perceived to have flouted the rules.
West Brom were also under a business plan imposed by the EFL with every deal in and out monitored. Yet despite those restrictions, mistakes have been made. Last month, there was the acrimonious departure of Andrew Nestor, a long-term associate of Patel and the club?s president and sporting director.
Nestor departed amid friction over the direction of the club, though many also argue he was responsible for a number of poor signings. The American introduced data platforms to supplement the recruitment team on signings and rebuilt the squad to play a specific style and formation.
Last summer there was a focus on acquiring older experienced players with leadership qualities to assist a young squad. Chris Mepham, Nat Phillips and Krystian Bielik all arrived on low fees.
Misalignment within the hierarchy surfaced after the dismissal of Mason, the former Tottenham assistant.
Mason lost too many games but was afflicted by desperately poor fortune. Albion were in the Championship?s bottom three for points difference affected by refereeing decisions. At one point, their save percentage from various goalkeepers was the third worst in the league.
When he departed, West Brom had run the furthest distance of any team in the Championship. He also inherited a squad who had problems last season, including only 10 wins from their previous 41 matches in all competitions.
Mason was sacked after another late defeat, this time at Leicester, and Nestor?s future was subsequently plunged into doubt too.
Despite interviewing Ramsay in the process which eventually led to Mason?s appointment, some senior figures felt the current squad were not capable of flourishing under a different set-up and formation so late in the season.
Nestor?s exit is alleged to have caught Albion by surprise, with former managing director Mark Miles returning to the club.
Transfer business in the January window late on was overseen by recruitment chief Ian Pearce. On deadline day two teenagers from Premier League academies arrived in Hindolo Mustapha (Crystal Palace) and Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba (Aston Villa).
Though highly-rated young talents, thrusting them into the white heat of a relegation battle does not seem very wise. Ramsey even admitted after the 0-0 draw with Stoke that Mustapha was ?not ready? to make an immediate impact.
With injuries now biting, which has seen Ramsay deprived of forward Karlan Grant and other experienced players, the situation is becoming perilous.
The visit of Coventry this weekend kicks off a potentially pivotal stage in the season. Ramsay could really do with picking up that first win.
This summer?s reset is the light at the end of the tunnel, and that is why Championship survival is imperative.
In other words we?ve had it
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