Great read mate, club really seems to do more talking about running a smart operation than actually running one.
Personally I don’t have as much of an issue with incoming transfers, many have not worked but most people wouldn’t have predicted signings of established Championship players to go so poorly.
My issue is with the sales, Heggum was great sale but Fellows was sold for pennies on the dollar after Saints brought in 50 million from Dibling and Fernandes, and Caleb Taylor is a top CB in Championship but couldn’t get in our team?
Hope that now Nestor is gone we can start again, I like Ramsay while he definitely got it wrong going with 5-Back he has had the awareness to realise his mistake. Hope that with preseason and some incomings we can at least get back to top 10 team next year.
I think the sales of Fellows and Taylor were needs must and that buying clubs knew they could have Albion over a barrel for them because they needed the profit, to meet the PSR margins. Academy lads are pure profit on the books. It's a sad consequence of PSR that "our own" are so useful in this respect but that's the reality for now.
My issue with the incoming transfers is that they have left the team so low on attacking threat. Barely any creativity or pace in the side.
Fingers crossed that Ramsay keeps us up and then we rebuild.
Very good, as usual! Personally, I would love it if we succeeded in staying up by ‘footballing’ our way to safety. However, given the games we have coming up, a huge degree of what we sometimes call shithousery is going to be required. Digging in, defending, not making stupid errors at the back and a few Megson/Pulis-esque 1-0s required.
Do the players have the ‘bottle’ for it? Does the head coach? We are about to find out.
Thanks Peter, and thanks for commenting as always! Regarding "footballing" our way to safety, if only. Albion are scarily low on attacking quality. Pace and technique, key ingredients in any side, yet those who did the shopping last summer seemed strangely oblivious to that. Grinding out wins thanks to stodgy defending and being effective at set pieces may need to be what we rely on, though I have a little bit of hope that Jimoh-Aloba can just add a bit more to us in attack that may possibly be the difference in some games.
That’s a good analysis I think Dan and well worth a read. I wonder how different things would have been had we not sacked Mason quite so readily. The (social media) fans in their impatience for unrealistic league positions hardly helped. I doubt we would be speaking of relegation in quite such concerned tones, either way.
Thanks Jason. Yes, that's a fair question about Mason. He wasn't doing great, the run of away defeats was horrendous, but he picked up enough wins at home to just about keep fears of a relegation battle at bay. Since Ramsay came in Albion have dropped right into it. I think (hope!) the club aren't too easily swayed by views aired on social media, I think they only acted on Mason when the fans in the ground really turned on him, but I have no doubt those social media influencers do shape some of what's voiced in the stadium and so they can be unhelpful. Imagine, for example, if we'd had social media back in January 2005 - Bryan Robson would probably have been under the cosh enough to be fired and the great escape wouldn't have happened.
We live in 2026 however and so it is what it is, and Eric Ramsay is the man we now need to get behind to keep us up.
An excellent and accurate picture of where we are at. I’m personally surprised at the lack of positive impact Ramsay had as an incoming coach; perhaps he just hasn’t connected with the players. There is still enough quality this squad to easily move into mid table - if the players are actually on board with the coach. That is the big question - which we will see answered over the next couple of weeks. If they’re not - we look likely to go down - something we wouldn’t have believed a couple of months back.
Thank you Simon! I think the main issue with Ramsay seems to have been a tactical one, or at least I hope is, because if he hasn't connected with the players then that's a grave concern. I'm not sure there is the quality to be mid table... low quality as the Championship may be, it's frightening just how low in attacking quality Albion are and how badly equipped the squad is in that respect. I just hope we can grind out enough results to stay up, and then address this deficiency. The "recruitment department" has a hell of a lot to answer for in my view.
Great read mate, club really seems to do more talking about running a smart operation than actually running one.
Personally I don’t have as much of an issue with incoming transfers, many have not worked but most people wouldn’t have predicted signings of established Championship players to go so poorly.
My issue is with the sales, Heggum was great sale but Fellows was sold for pennies on the dollar after Saints brought in 50 million from Dibling and Fernandes, and Caleb Taylor is a top CB in Championship but couldn’t get in our team?
Hope that now Nestor is gone we can start again, I like Ramsay while he definitely got it wrong going with 5-Back he has had the awareness to realise his mistake. Hope that with preseason and some incomings we can at least get back to top 10 team next year.
Thanks Jack!
I think the sales of Fellows and Taylor were needs must and that buying clubs knew they could have Albion over a barrel for them because they needed the profit, to meet the PSR margins. Academy lads are pure profit on the books. It's a sad consequence of PSR that "our own" are so useful in this respect but that's the reality for now.
My issue with the incoming transfers is that they have left the team so low on attacking threat. Barely any creativity or pace in the side.
Fingers crossed that Ramsay keeps us up and then we rebuild.
Hey Dan, new Eric Ramsay article on my Substack would love to hear what you think
I was actually reading it when you messaged mate!
Very good, as usual! Personally, I would love it if we succeeded in staying up by ‘footballing’ our way to safety. However, given the games we have coming up, a huge degree of what we sometimes call shithousery is going to be required. Digging in, defending, not making stupid errors at the back and a few Megson/Pulis-esque 1-0s required.
Do the players have the ‘bottle’ for it? Does the head coach? We are about to find out.
Thanks Peter, and thanks for commenting as always! Regarding "footballing" our way to safety, if only. Albion are scarily low on attacking quality. Pace and technique, key ingredients in any side, yet those who did the shopping last summer seemed strangely oblivious to that. Grinding out wins thanks to stodgy defending and being effective at set pieces may need to be what we rely on, though I have a little bit of hope that Jimoh-Aloba can just add a bit more to us in attack that may possibly be the difference in some games.
Tonight was a good example of the defensive qualities we need. Now we need to figure out how to score!
That’s a good analysis I think Dan and well worth a read. I wonder how different things would have been had we not sacked Mason quite so readily. The (social media) fans in their impatience for unrealistic league positions hardly helped. I doubt we would be speaking of relegation in quite such concerned tones, either way.
Thanks Jason. Yes, that's a fair question about Mason. He wasn't doing great, the run of away defeats was horrendous, but he picked up enough wins at home to just about keep fears of a relegation battle at bay. Since Ramsay came in Albion have dropped right into it. I think (hope!) the club aren't too easily swayed by views aired on social media, I think they only acted on Mason when the fans in the ground really turned on him, but I have no doubt those social media influencers do shape some of what's voiced in the stadium and so they can be unhelpful. Imagine, for example, if we'd had social media back in January 2005 - Bryan Robson would probably have been under the cosh enough to be fired and the great escape wouldn't have happened.
We live in 2026 however and so it is what it is, and Eric Ramsay is the man we now need to get behind to keep us up.
An excellent and accurate picture of where we are at. I’m personally surprised at the lack of positive impact Ramsay had as an incoming coach; perhaps he just hasn’t connected with the players. There is still enough quality this squad to easily move into mid table - if the players are actually on board with the coach. That is the big question - which we will see answered over the next couple of weeks. If they’re not - we look likely to go down - something we wouldn’t have believed a couple of months back.
Thank you Simon! I think the main issue with Ramsay seems to have been a tactical one, or at least I hope is, because if he hasn't connected with the players then that's a grave concern. I'm not sure there is the quality to be mid table... low quality as the Championship may be, it's frightening just how low in attacking quality Albion are and how badly equipped the squad is in that respect. I just hope we can grind out enough results to stay up, and then address this deficiency. The "recruitment department" has a hell of a lot to answer for in my view.