This season has quickly become a campaign of “what could’ve been”. After a tremendous start, West Brom occupied the top two spots alongside Sunderland. This didn’t last long with a difficult run of 11 games where they won once and drew ten times. However, there was still optimism under Carlos’ wise stewardship.
Tragedy struck on the 23rd of December 2024. I was starting my night shift when the rumour mill started spinning. Carlos was allegedly leaving for Valencia immediately. It wasn’t long until the news became official, and Albion fans enjoyed their equivalent of coal in their stockings.
Just over a week before a major January transfer window and the Albion were searching for a manager. Disaster. An optimistic season was derailing before our very eyes. Who will step up to steer the ship to a now-expected play-off finish?
A Fan Favourite Returns
Tony Mowbray was in the running the entire time. However, concerns over his health kept him from being a serious contender in the initial search. After the deal with Raphael Wicky fell through at the last moment, Mowbray stepped up with a clearance to work from his doctor. It seemed like fate. Right?
Realistically, whoever took over from Corberan was faced with an uphill battle. Carlos had curated a side that fit his philosophy perfectly. Mowbray would come in with a very different style that differs greatly from Corberan’s pragmatic approach.
Mowbray likes his teams to press, keep possession and score plenty of goals doing it. Clean sheets are the least of Tony’s concerns. Happy to get them, but thrilled with a big scoreline and plenty of shots on goal.
Corberan’s Albion side is alien to these ideas. They’re used to scoring early and holding the lead and allowing the opposition to keep the ball before launching a devastating counterattack with pace.
What the fans don’t seem to understand is that the club is now at the beginning of another full-scale rebuild. Mowbray has been given a two and a half year deal. Surely, this tells us that he has the backing of the board to rebuild this squad in his image.
One thing Andrew Nestor, the club’s sporting director, was clear on during the hiring process was the club’s desire to hire a manager with an exciting brand of football that the fans can enjoy. Tony Mowbray fits these requirements alongside fond memories with the club.
What’s Gone Wrong?
As of writing, Tony has taken charge of 17 games as West Brom’s manager. Unfortunately, their record in those games has been very poor, with Mowbray achieving 5 wins, 5 draws and 7 losses. After only one win in their last 7 games, the Albion have tumbled out of play-off contention.
With devastating losses against clubs like Sunderland, Bristol City, and Coventry City, West Brom have all but shattered their hopes of achieving a playoff spot come the end of the season. With only three games left, the Baggies need to make up six points and hope many, many results go their way.
Why has the form been so dreadful? Can it all be attributed to the change of tactical style? Not necessarily. Carlos didn’t exactly have the smoothest time at the Hawthorns when Gouchan Lai ran the club. Patel has only recently purchased the club and as such, the club are still recovering from the mismanagement of the previous regime.
The new ownership had to navigate financial fair play whilst also adding to the depleted squad. High earners were let go, like Adam Reach and Okay Yokuslu, to make room for more players, giving the squad more depth. Unfortunately, depth still seems to be a major issue at the club.
Injuries Galore
All season, the Albion have navigated consistent injuries to their centre backs. Holgate, Bartley, Ajayi, and the standout Heggem have all had spells injured. In some circumstances, two of them have been injured, leaving us with only two available centre-backs.
At right-back, Darnell Furlong has been our only real option, with Holgate filling in on the rare occasion that Furlong was unavailable. Up front, the Albion have been plagued with devastating injuries. Both Maja and Dike have had lengthy spells out injured since arriving at the club.
Maja saw something of a resurgence at the beginning of the season. Scoring for fun and playing out of his skin, Maja was in top form. However, this ended abruptly in early January when it was announced that he needed surgery, which has kept him out until most likely the end of the season.
Dike has just recovered from his second Achilles injury, but hasn’t managed to start a game since his return. Understandably, he’ll be struggling with his fitness after spending almost a year injured.
January was an opportunity to rectify the problems with the squad, with Mowbray finally being hired, the club had a few weeks to make some significant signings…
Marquee Signings
The Albion signed four players and recalled two of their youngsters from loan moves. Caleb Taylor was brought back from Wycombe to help with our defensive injury crisis, and Josh Griffiths returned from Bristol Rovers to replace the outgoing Alex Palmer.
Losing Alex Palmer was a significant loss to the side. Last year’s Golden Glove winner was in spectacular form and probably single-handedly kept us in many games this season. Financially, it made a lot of sense to sell Palmer. His stock was high, and being a home-grown player meant that the profit margin was huge in relation to PSR.
Loanee Uros Racic also saw his loan spell cut short, which freed up a slot for a player who may not receive a work permit. With the dominoes falling into place, the Albion had a very busy close to the window.
Isaac Price was signed much earlier as he was a target under the Corberan regime, but also suited Mowbray nicely. Firstly, Will Lankshear was brought in to provide cover up front after Maja’s injury. With Dike still not fully fit, it was decided that another forward was needed.
On the final day, Albion made two huge signings. Adam Armstrong, last season’s Golden Boot winner, was signed on loan, and Tammer Bany, an exciting prospect from the Danish league, was signed permanently. However, it wouldn’t be smooth sailing for both of these players.
Off Season and Out of Form
Tammer Bany joined the club in the Danish league’s off-season, meaning he wasn’t up to pace when coming into the club. It would take weeks for him to even make the bench for the Albion. He hasn’t played many minutes this season, making four appearances off the bench. There is certainly more to come from Bany, but Baggies fans will have to wait.
Adam Armstrong, however, was thrown straight into the starting line-up. Against Sheffield Wednesday, he would open his account with a fantastic effort in a 2-1 win for the Albion. He wouldn’t score again until a penalty against QPR four games later. These would be his only two contributions for the club.
After a long run of failing to find the back of the net, and a few big chances missed, Armstrong would eventually be dropped, with West Brom finding themselves out of the playoff spots.
It was baffling that last season’s Golden Boot winner seemed so limp and ineffective. Last season, he had managed 21 goals and 13 assists. He is clearly very capable of creating chances for himself and others, however, he hasn’t shown that. It has been a very disappointing loan move for everyone involved.
With the goals not coming, fans began to wonder what Armstrong actually offered the team. The answer was very little. Will Lankshear has taken his place by simply working harder, moving around more and proving a nuisance to the opposition defence. His finishing leaves little to be desired, but he is young and inexperienced.
Disaster Strikes
All was not lost. If Albion performed and beat their rivals, Bristol City and Coventry City, they would put themselves back on the front foot for a playoff spot. Pundits were predicting them a guaranteed spot in the playoffs, claiming that only sixth place was up for grabs in the league table.
What a jinx this was…
Bristol City easily swept the Albion aside. Although the scoreline was 2-1, that was very generous on the Baggies, who scrambled the ball over the line for their equaliser before Molumby was sent off and Nakhi Wells scored his late winner.
West Brom had an awful first half and gradually grew into the game, but the red card was calamitous and undone all their work. It seemed that they had failed at the first hurdle.
After an unconvincing win against Watford, which could’ve easily ended in a draw, and other results going their way, West Brom were back in the fight. All they had to do was beat Coventry. Simple right?
Wrong. So very wrong.
In a lacklustre performance, they were hammered 2-0 by a Coventry side that hardly broke a sweat. West Brom failed to register a single shot on target and managed to receive another red card, their fifth since Tony Mowbray took charge. This loss saw them tumble out of the playoffs, but worse still, they lost the fans.
Nowadays, however, it isn’t too difficult for clubs to lose their fans…
Fickle Fans
Modern football has, unfortunately, turned into a revolving door of sacking managers whenever things get rough. Watford used to get loads of stick for chopping and changing managers consistently, but now every team follows this same flawed ethos.
If a club goes on a bad run, the fans’ first instinct is to lambast the manager and demand their sacking. Shortly after the 2-0 loss to Coventry, the Albion fans were no different. Now it’s not all of the fans. Not at all. It’s mainly just the chronically online keyboard warriors who let their emotions get the better of them.
Instead of stopping and truly thinking about why the Albion are performing so poorly, they resort to demanding Mowbray’s sacking or resignation. Under no circumstances would sacking Mowbray save the season and get the Albion into the playoffs. All it would accomplish is costing the club a lot in compensation fees.
Frankly, Mowbray shouldn’t be judged at all until next season. No manager can be expected to come in midway through and continue exceeding expectations. Carlos was punching above his weight with this side. Expectations at the start of the season weren’t to finish in the playoffs, yet overperformance increased this expectation.
Then, with Carlos leaving, the expectations were left rather than being addressed realistically. Tony Mowbray is not at fault for the disappointing end to the season. Judge him once he’s built his own squad, had a pre-season and made this team his own.
All Hell Breaks Loose
Currently, West Brom are 6 points off a play-off spot. It is incredibly unlikely that, with their remaining 3 games, they’ll catch up and sneak in. It’s a terribly underwhelming finish to what was starting to look like the culmination of years of hard work from Carlos and his team.
Carlos deserves the opportunity to prove himself at Valencia, but West Brom’s fans are allowed to feel bitter that he has derailed their season so tremendously. Could they have got promoted? Possibly.
All in all, the board know what they are doing. The team will be rebuilt under the leadership of an exciting and very experienced coach in Tony Mowbray. Success is in his blood and while it may suck now, I have every bit of confidence that Tony can replicate his success with Sunderland, Blackburn and even West Brom back in 2008.
My advice to Albion fans would be, calm down, write off this season like I had in December, and enjoy what will be an exciting 2025/26 season. In Mowbray we trust.
