Road to Nowhere By Chris Lepkowski

[Bombers right foot]

You?ll have seen the rumours, heard the gossip, gasped at the detail, and re-posted it to within an inch of your life.

There was, according to the wild west of social media, a bust-up at the Albion training ground this week.

Things have been played down by those close to the club.

I have my own views around it all ? that?s for another day. As always the truth lurks somewhere half-way between one side and another.
But the bigger question is why is anyone remotely bothered that this alleged bust up between Jayson Molumby and Eric Ramsay might have happened?

The bigger story would be that a bust-up hadn?t happened ? that Albion?s failing footballers, for instance, might be playing leapfrog during set-piece practice, or high-fiving each other during warm-ups. Footballers and coaches falling out with each other when things are bad are part and parcel of the game. Who cares? These things happen all the time. They even happen when results are going well.

There are bigger issues to consider here.

Football clubs are horrendous places when things are going badly. Players and coaches will be snarling at everyone within the training ground, while those who work in non-footballing roles will be tip-toeing around desperately trying to avoid saying the wrong thing - even though none of it is their fault. All staff keep their head down, nobody smiles, everyone prays the next game will bring respite - a 1-0 victory perhaps, or a draw at least. When results are bad everyone on the outside hates you.

Our friends in ?admin? dare not post a birthday greeting to a former player in case it incurs the wrath of someone saying: 'I wish he could play on Saturday' ? even though aforementioned player has just turned 67-years-old, or has been deceased for 18 years ? let alone the reaction to comments from a beleaguered manager or player, desperately wishing he wasn't on media duties after yet another bad result. Everyone listening and watching is full of spittle, rage and anger. That?s football, 2026.

Of bigger concern is how Albion have put themselves in this position. That's where your story is.

Andrew Nestor: Remember him?

We are to assume he will leave the club. Indeed he already has. I was told in early January that his 'recruitment' teeth had been removed.

This saga gets worse. I am informed that when Ramsay was about to be unveiled there were panicked senior staff members frantically trying to locate Nestor?s whereabouts, wondering whether he was going to turn up to the press conference to announce the new coach, or was on leave, or whether he was already in persona non grata territory. The internal communications completely failed. Yes, it really was that chaotic. Nobody knew where he was.

It was, for want of a better phrase, an utter shambles.

Nestor did not turn up.

Instead, a somewhat disengaged and dishevelled Shilen Patel faced the press ? presenting a united front against the backdrop of a growing culture of disharmony.

Nestor, by the way, has redacted some elements of his LinkedIn profile during the last few weeks, while also disappearing from public view. There were stories that he did not endorse the recent appointment of Ramsay, leading to his no-show at the unveiling. It's all a little bit mysterious, wouldn't you say?

The likelihood is that Nestor DID rate Ramsay as a coach, but his own squad recruitment over the last 18 months or so had drawn the personnel away from the favoured 3-4-3 favoured by Ramsay. If we are being kind, we can assume that Ramsay was someone favoured by Nestor?but in 2024, not in 2026. Right guy, wrong squad. In any event, he's gone. (By the way: several journalists have reported the story and produced different outcomes: that's fine. Reporters, ideally, build up a story based on different interpretations, based on their contacts. Clubs will inevitably give their side of the story to control reputational damage. What people need to be asking is, which is the version of events they believe...)

And while we are on the subject of recruitment, I find it somewhat troubling to learn some of Albion?s head coaches/managers had been removed from the transfer process to the point of not being invited to recruitment meetings. Imagine that: you are manager/head coach of a football club, but have absolutely zero input into the comings and goings.

What next, data analysts picking the first XI? Don't even go there. I am informed one Baggies boss was walking through the corridor, next to the ?recruitment HQ?, only to have the door slammed shut in his face as he prepared to exchange pleasantries with staff. Nice. This is the culture that prevails.

This isn?t a good way to run a football club. While there is an appreciation for handing over recruitment away from a manager or head coach's remit, surely they should never be excluded from the process. Again, this is where West Bromwich Albion finds itself.

Molumby vs Ramsay on a Monday morning, after a shocking defeat, is barely an undercard to how some of the managers have been treated on Nestor?s watch, let alone how the club has been run by the current owners.

Let us not forget that this season?s appointments were a 34-year-old coach scraped from the worst-ever Tottenham side of this century. He had never managed before, and it showed. Yet, who knew his time in charge would prove to be a potential highlight? He was replaced by a coach, of the same age, who had no pedigree as a player, but had done a decent job as chief of Minnesota in the jeopardy-free US soccer leagues. Ramsay speaks well, but again, Albion's recruitment speaks to the LinkedIn-ification of the process ? those who say the right things, get the job. Gentlemen, this isn?t how football works.

Where is the football intelligence?

Where are the people who are immersed with sporting governance and administration?

Consider this: would you expect a manager risk playing a team of rookie teenagers, who are not streetwise, lacking in emotional intelligence, and have no experience in adversity? Of course not.

Yet our executives have effectively done this with their recruitment of two totally inexperienced managers. All because of something called 'data'. Football data is fine, but it should prop up and support your recruitment.

The moment you use it as a driver for recruitment you lose that crucial element of scouting (be it of players, or coaches): personality, character, people skills, and all of those human characteristics that are so important in football. You don?t need an iPad or spreadsheet to recognise who is and isn?t playing, or managing, well. More so, data won?t tell you who will and won?t adapt well to your club and playing style.

Football has always been about people and how those people behave, react, how they settle into a club, and what they are capable of producing within a pressured environment - something that data will never specify. You cannot replicate human emotion, endeavour, attitude, aptitude, personality, will, character through number-crunching.

Football in the US is of a certain level, and the stewardship of footballers is, ultimately, reliant on management skills. But there is a certain level of skill, aptitude and challenge that differentiates the American model to the English EFL model. Again, whether this was Nestor?s call, or Patel?s shout?who knows? The question is: who thought the appointment of Ramsay during the apex of a relegation battle would be a better shout than somebody who has the capabilities of managing such a crisis? Because that's what it is: a crisis. A crisis of Bilkul's own doing.

Nestor is seemingly gone. Let?s not mourn a man who has presided over a club that has wilted since Carlos Corberan left.

It is an absolute slur that Nestor's name as 'president' sits alongside some of the great names in West Bromwich Albion's history, including Everiss, Millichip, and Silk.

I digress.

All eyes are on the Patel stewardship of the club. Where is the growth of revenue streams? Where is the want to expand West Bromwich Albion?s fanbase and potential? Why is the matchday experience the same now as it was in 2016? Actually, it isn?t. It?s worse.

The Saturday experience and lack of engagement into Albion as an entity are quibbles for another time - and, trust me, we will return there - but Shilen Patel and co desperately need to steer their own investment into a better place.

So, if Molumby and Ramsay did don their proverbial boxing gloves: good. Hopefully we'll find out who came out on top.

But, make no mistake, players and coaches supposedly playing pat-a-cake during training is nowhere near the worst thing happening at West Bromwich Albion right now.

[baggieal]

Good post and what a mess the club is in. Personally I do not believe Patel will put money into the club when he can - that?s a hunch on how it?s being run now. The bottom line is if we go into league 1 where we are heading - what will Patel?s investment be worth then?

Also consider this if we drop into league 1

All the high earners and garbage will be gone! Good but there?s a lot of them!
All the loan players will be gone!
Price and Johnston will want to go
So that leaves very few players and the youngsters will not know whether they are coming or going because we don?t give them minutes.

A fine mess!

[Bombers right foot]

Plus there is no guarantee we will cone straight back up, it?s a difficult league as Sunderland found out along with Luton etc

[baggieal]

Plus there is no guarantee we will cone straight back up, it?s a difficult league as Sunderland found out along with Luton etc

Exactly! Blues had an owner who really invested and I do not see Patel spending his money!

[Omegstrat6]

A fair few rumours flying about and honestly don't know what to believe. Unless we know someone at the club who has witnessed first hand what has gone on and we trust their reporting, it is difficult to speculate too accurately. What is obvious, of course, is that performances and results hint at something badly wrong but to be able to find the root causes of this, is mostly guesswork.

If it is true that neither the head coach (whether Corberan, Mason or Ramsay) or others such as Morrison and Myhill, had little or no input in the recruitment process then that is surely farcical however.

Data, of course, has its uses but it can only tell so much of the whole story. Not only might you question whether you have all the data you need in the first place but much also depends on the analysis of the data you do have-how is it interpreted, are some aspects ignored or downplayed while others are favoured? Statistics, as I'm sure we all know, can be used selectively to try and back up most arguments.

Moreover, when you are dealing with people, there are many other factors that come into play, especially as regards things such as attitude, potential, teamwork or motivation. These can be harder to quantify. Sadly, as developments in AI and technology encroach further still on so many aspects of our lives I notice increasing erosion of the human factor -and it is not just customer service assistants, checkout operators, training officers, artists, musicians or actors, for example, whose livelihoods are being threatened. One very well known UK supermarket recently began to outsource the early stages of its recruitment process to a company that utilised AI to filter applicants. The result was that some of those who passed this stage were viewed as not suitable when it came to the actual interview stage whilst others who would have been suitable had been rejected. I've heard that complaints from stores led to this system being dropped.

I have no problem with any job having certain pre-requisites if genuinely needed (e.g. specific qualifications or experience) that can be used to filter out applicants in the early stages but, having had many years experience being involved in recruitment, I can also say that nothing can really replace face to face interviews. Certainly, you have to use set check lists which help ensure both that a suitable candidate is chosen and that any potential claims of discrimination can be disproved but, in my experience, recruiting people is as much an "art" as it is a "science". I'm sure that this applies to all jobs-including those of players or managers.

Another danger of being over-reliant on data is that this data can often lead to the development of quite rigid systems. Adhere too strictly to them, however, and innovation can be stifled. Sometimes, it might be beneficial to bend the rules. I'm sure that allowing a degree of flexibility with a chosen system or method is as important on the football pitch as it is in a business. "Freedom within the framework" and all that.

Difficult not to agree sometimes with those who feel that, at its root, football is a simple game and that we are currently over analysing it and making it far more complicated than it needs to be and getting rather tied up in knots in the process. Then again, could be that I'm just an old ludite...😞