West Bromwich Albion:

r/WBAfootball | r/Championship

Writeup by u/Aoae and proofread by members of the r/WBAfootball Discord - Disclaimer: all views expressed here are our own, and not necessarily indicative of the entire fanbase's views.

Links to previous previews:

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#3 - Birmingham City
#4 - Middlesbrough
#5 - Burnley FC
#6 - Watford FC

#7 - Paul Ince's Mighty Royals

#8 - Blackpool FC

About:

West Bromwich Albion, the biggest football club in the West Midlands, was formed in 1878 in what is now Sandwell in the Black Country. It is one of the twelve founder clubs of the Football Association.

Stadium: the Hawthorns - the highest ground (above sea level) amongst all clubs in the EFL. The current capacity is 26,688.

Head Coach: Steve Bruce has served as the manager of West Brom since February of this year, replacing Valérien Ismaël.

Official website | Wikipedia

Last season was one to forget for the Baggies. West Brom placed 10th in their first season returning to the Championship after relegation under Sam Allardyce, their lowest finish in the English football pyramid in over 20 years.

After Big Sam declined to continue as manager, we stole Barnsley's manager, Valérien Ismaël, who had lead Barnsley to an impressive 5th in the 2020-21 season. We brought in several players in the summer of 2021 - notably, Alex Mowatt (Barnsley's captain) and Adam Reach from Sheffield Wednesday - and loaned Matt Clarke and Jayson Molumby from Brighton as well as Jordan Hugill from Norwich City. Sorry, Tykes.

We also lost several notable players, including some important names from our doomed Premier League campaign two seasons ago. Charlie Austin, Kyle Edwards, Kieran Gibbs, Kamil Grosicki, and Hal Robson-Kanu all departed from the Hawthorns. Perhaps the most important loss, however, was Matheus Pereira - an extremely talented and creative midfielder instrumental to our last campaign, as well as our promotion in 2019-20. He went off to Al-Hilal, after a mixture of being unsettled by the Saudi club and disagreements with Val's questioning of his committment to the club. Many fans had expected to sell him for 20-25 million; instead, we were lowballed, receiving about 15 million over four years. But onward we went nonetheless.

Our season under Ismaël, and his eccentric system of football (dubbed "Valball"), started off strongly, with a notable pre-season 4-0 win against the Blues. By Matchday 10, we were at the top of the league table, undefeated and having never dropped out of the top four. Things were looking bright in our quest to bounce back to the top flight immediately.

However, the remainder of the year would not be so positive. Through a mixture of wasted chances and abysmal mistakes, Albion would falter offensively, scoring three goals in the final seven games of the year. Due to the high press of Val's system, we created large amounts of xG and denied our opponents the same - but also underperformed xG massively, allowing sides like newly promoted Blackpool, struggling Barnsley, and Wayne Rooney's Super Rams to nick points off of us. By January of the new year, we had slumped to fourth in the table - still in the playoffs, but with horrid form more characteristic of a mid-table team.

Of course, football fans being football fans, Baggies began to look for a cause for this unexpected decline. Looking at xG, Valball was quite impressive - however, it requires an effective striker and creative midfielder. The biggest scapegoat for our underperformance was Jordan Hugill, who to the fans' credit was by far the worst performer amongst our lineup of strikers. But the blame would also fall on other players like Karlan Grant and Callum Robinson (two other forwards who missed substantial chances), Jake Livermore (our captain, more famous for the Barcelona taxi incident of 2018), and Alex Mowatt (who started off well but quickly fell off with the rest of the squad). Hugill, with one goal in twenty appearances for the Albion and supposedly forced to train alone, ended up moving to Cardiff (where he immediately scored against Forest in his first game there).

As January proceeded terribly with losses to QPR, Preston, and Millwall, the elephant in the room became obvious - Val himself. The general sentiment amongst Baggies fans is that the players lost faith in his fastidious system of football, and subsequently the motivation necessary to contend for the top spots of one of the most challenging leagues in the world. Long story short, he was sacked (less than a month after meeting our chairman, Guochuan Lai, in person), and was replaced by an unemployed Steve Bruce in February.

The remainder of the season is largely unremarkable. While the players seemed to trust Bruce more, our downwards form continued for another month. By February 28 we had lost seven of our last eight matches, four losses under Bruce. By GW 34, we had dropped to the lower half of the Championship table. Fortunately, Bruce managed to stabilize the squad and we began to play decently, with a undefeated March, wins against Fulham and Bournemouth, and legendary performances by one Andy Carroll. Ending the season with a triumphant 4-0 against Barnsley, West Brom finished the season 10th - wonderful in the context of February, but still a disappointment given the pre-season expectations.

Given the improvement in form, and to the derision of Newcastle fans, we ended up keeping Bruce. Val went off to Besiktas, and Pereira to disappointment (seriously, Al-Hilal fans hate him now). Our PL2 side also had some brilliant performances, winning the Premier League Cup in a tense Black Country Derby against the Dingles Wolves.

We submitted our financial accounts from the 2020-21 Premier League Season. We are still debt-free somehow, which is quite rare for a Prem/Championship level club. But it did reveal some questionable loans to some of our owner's other businesses, none of which are likely to help with his eroded trust amongst the fanbase.

Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet off-season.

Our manager continues to be Steve Bruce, the Newcastle legend. My first impression of him is that he seems like a very kind-hearted, wholesome soul. Of course, this by itself is not sufficient for effective football coaching. But it surely has helped him win the trust of the dressing room.

Given our aging core of players (the likes of Bartley, Livermore, and Furlong Phillips) largely thought to be overpaid given their performances last season, much attention has been put into Steve Bruce's rebuild of the squad this summer. If Bruce can rebuild effectively and continue to maintain the trust of the players, results will likely be positive. But the fans reckon that next season could go either way.

Arrivals:

Departures:

...and around ten youth players.

We also loaned Quevin Castro to Burton, Josh Griffiths to Pompey, Kipré to Cardiff, and Caleb Taylor to Cheltenham for the season.

There are several players to keep an eye out on this season, which probably explains the delusions amongst the Baggies fanbase that we will piss the league this year. This list is not exhaustive.

The first of these is Daryl Dike, striker and Orlando City SC legend, who shone with Val's Barnsley in 2020-21. Brought in this January in a fateful attempt to save his manager's job (given the lackluster performance of the likes of Hugill), he was injured one game in and could not do so. Fortunately for us, he has recovered and seems intent on staying with the Albion for this season at least. He scored an impressive goal, his first for the club, in a pre-season friendly against Northampton Town on July 13th.

Other great players to keep an eye on are two young, defensive stars - Taylor Gardner-Hickmann, an academy player who has been one of the bright spots of last season's gloomy campaign, and Dara O'Shea, who has finally returned after a season-ending injury playing for Ireland last year - and is a new dad as well!

John Swift and Jed Wallace, both brought in this off-season, have already impressed with their performances in the pre-season matches. West Brom fans have high hopes for them, as well as for Okay Yokuşlu once he can make it to England. ^{Only big clubs are reported on by Fabrizio Romano.}

With Sam Johnstone's departure, expect our two remaining keepers - David Button and a young Alex Palmer - to step up to the plate. Even after a mediocre season last year, his shoes will still be challenging to fill.

Expect more of what we saw at the end of last season with a 4-4-2 centred on Grant, Robinson, and Dike as our target men and Diangana up front as well. There is no indication by Bruce that we will change our tactics this season. IIRC, the sentiment amongst Baggies is that Diangana should be playing up left instead of on the right like Bruce is doing. Robinson may or may not be returning to Preston North End, a move that both fanbases will likely be pleased by.

Midfielders will include Mowatt, Reach, Molumby, Livermore, Matty Phillips, and the aforementioned Wallace, Swift, and Yokuşlu.

We have a great defense, between Townsend, Ajayi, Gardner-Hickmann, Bartley, and Furlong. Matt Clarke, who was quite good last season on loan from Brighton, may or may not be returning to the club this year.

Considering everything, my initial predicted lineup looked something like this. But u/BTBNationed pointed out that Bruce has been experimenting more with 4-3-3, likely due to the new arrivals, suggesting this lineup instead.

It is still unclear how coherent this squad is at least on the basis of our pre-season matches - we lost 2-0 to Stevenage and could not break down Crewe in a scrappy 1-1 draw. But if last spring was an indication, we definitely have the talent, and the manager, to contend for playoffs this season. Automatics seems out of the question without a heavy slip-up from Watford, Norwich, or Burnley. But playoffs are very realistic. It will be an interesting season, to say the least...

Predicted finish - 5th

• Our mascot, Baggie Bird, is a cute bird. In fact, it is a throstle (song thrush) - a wonderful songbird known for its distinctive, musical chirps and spotted blue eggs. Writers and poets, including Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy, and William Wordsworth, have praised and alluded to the throstle in their literary works.

• Our other mascot is literally a boiler

• You enjoy fine cuisine such as balti pies and orange chips. Balti pies are pies filled with a delicious balti curry. Orange chips are chips battered with a paprika-containing batter prior to frying, giving them a distinctive orange appearance.

• The Hawthorns is one of the best stadiums in England, according to FourFourTwo.

• This banger

• This other banger

• We tripped up Chelsea twice the last time we were in the Premier League - the kind of help that Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs fans appreciate.

• You know a Villa or a Wolves fan and want to annoy them.

• You know a Newcastle fan and want to annoy them (as long as Steve Bruce is at the wheel).

• You are a masochist who enjoys being emotionally obliterated for months on end.

• We're a yo-yo club, despite being relegated exactly twice in the past decade

• Your ex is a Baggie

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