West Bromwich Albion

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West Bromwich Albion cannot become fixated on their position in the Championship table, according to head coach Eric Ramsay.

The Baggies go into Saturday's match at home to Stoke City (15:01 GMT) in the relegation zone after failing to win any of Ramsay's four league games in charge, losing three of them.

"That is something that I'll always keep at bay. The state of the table is meaningless to me from the perspective of the messages I give to the players and the way in which we prepare for an individual game," he told BBC Radio WM.

"You have to have that laser focus on the day-to-day because otherwise the whole situation starts to feel too heavy."

West Brom have announced former managing director Mark Miles has returned to the club as executive director, following confirmation of sporting director Andrew Nestor's departure from The Hawthorns.

But Ramsay says he has not had time to think about what those changes will mean to the team in the long term.

"It wasn't something I'd anticipated coming so soon but not something I've been able to give loads of thought to," he said

"Once there is time to breathe maybe it's something I'll be able to reflect on."

Steve Hermon
BBC Radio WM's West Bromwich Albion commentator

Image source, Getty Images

The brevity of statements from both West Bromwich Albion and Andrew Nestor will tell you all you need to know about the state of the relationship that had broken down behind the scenes at the Hawthorns.

They have both wished each other well, and the parting is officially by 'mutual agreement', but tensions boiled over to the point that the American hadn't attended a Baggies game since December.

I understand he was reluctant to sack Ryan Mason, but it certainly was his decision to appoint the former Spurs assistant last summer, and it's just one of the reasons why he has departed. The fact the American was given the title 'President' also rankled with many, and not just the fanbase.

It's been a chaotic mess, but they're now not messing around in a bid to save their season with the team sitting in the Championship relegation zone.

Nestor's rise to a presidential role in September last year coincided with the departure of Mark Miles. He guided the ship through the financially disastrous reign of Guochuan Lai and was instrumental in getting Shilen Patel's takeover of the club over the line in February 2024.

Miles, who had served the club in multiple roles for 22 years, is now back five months later as executive director, reporting directly to the owner and chairman.

The Baggies are in the process of appointing more 'football people', with Maccabi Tel Aviv technical director and former Liverpool analyst Dominic Price being linked with a senior off-field role. But for now, they're hoping Miles' experience and leadership will offer stability and help guide them to a much better place.

That's something they also need on the field, with the better place in the short term being staying in the second tier. If head coach Eric Ramsay and his players can do that, it will give owners Bilkul a chance to regroup and rebuild after multiple missteps set them off course.

West Brom go into Saturday's game having taken only one point from their four matches under new boss Eric Ramsay with their last Championship victory coming on 29 December at home to QPR.

Stoke's four-game winless run means they have dropped to 12th place, five points short of the play-off places.

• West Brom are unbeaten in their past seven league games against Stoke (W4 D3), having lost three in a row against them before this.

• Stoke have lost just one of their past five away league games against West Brom (W2 D2), going down 2-0 in November 2022.

• Only bottom side Sheffield Wednesday (21) have lost more Championship games than West Brom this season (16). The Baggies last lost more in a full second tier campaign in 1999-00 (17).

• Only Sheffield Wednesday (17) and Oxford (12) have failed to score in more different Championship games than Stoke City this season (11).

• Since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, no player has provided more assists in the Championship than Stoke City's Sorba Thomas (34, level with Gustavo Hamer).

West Bromwich Albion need their owners to provide strong leadership during their current Championship struggles, according to former Baggies striker Hal Robson-Kanu.

Albion are third from bottom after losing five games in a six-match winless league run and Robson-Kanu says those running the club have to lead from the front.

Eric Ramsay was appointed head coach in January to succeed Ryan Mason but Andrew Nestor is set to leave the club as sporting director and president, amid tensions and uncertainty behind the scenes.

"I'm surprised [they are struggling], given the size of the club but at the same time the Championship in particular is a league in which you will finish where you deserve to," he told BBC Radio WM.

"My final season in professional football was in the Premier League with West Brom and the club needs real strong ownership, a strong direction, a real strong vision and needs to bring together a squad which is passionate about a common goal to excite and reward the fans for their loyalty.

"The reality is since that 2021 season it hasn't happened and hasn't been in place."

The former Wales forward spent five years at The Hawthorns, scoring 21 league goals in 53 starts and helping them win promotion to the Premier League in 2020.

"When you look at the success or failures a club has it always starts at the top so you need that authentic, genuine, visionary ownership to inspire people, players and a fanbase to get behind the team to win games," added Robson-Kanu.

West Brom face Stoke City in the Championship on Saturday (15:01 GMT).

Chris Hall
Fan writer

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Relegation to the third tier of English football should be virtually unimaginable for West Bromwich Albion.

Afterall, it has only happened once before, back in 1990/91.

But, with the Baggies tumbling into the Championship's bottom three courtesy of Blackburn's win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night, there's a very real possibility that history could repeat itself some 35-years on.

Most casual observers seem bemused by Albion's plight.

A glance at our squad list shows a number of full internationals and a wealth of seasoned Championship pros whose combined talents should be more than capable of seeing The Throstles clear of trouble.

Yet all that ability and experience have amounted to very little of late.

It's not just that Albion are in trouble, it's that they are showing virtually no signs of life.

The Baggies are second bottom in the Championship form table for the last 12 games, only above beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday, and two of the last three games have been nothing short of a complete capitulation.

Fixtures at home to then 22nd placed Norwich and 21st placed Portsmouth should have represented opportunities for Albion to put daylight between themselves and the bottom three.

Instead, they turned into morale-boosting wins for The Baggies' relegation rivals, which also decimated Albion's goal difference, as they lost the two key clashes by an aggregate score of 8-0.

Fans let their feelings be known after both defeats, and some players took exception to that as Isaac Price had to be dragged away from confronting his own supporters at Fratton Park.

Then, that was followed a day later by rumours of a total lack of alignment between President Andrew Nestor and others in the Albion hierarchy, as both parties appeared to try to distance themselves from the appointment of the current boss, Eric Ramsay. Hardly a vote of confidence in the Welshman.

Ramsay is, strategically, a strange appointment given Albion's predicament.

The Baggies squad had clearly been built to play a 4-2-3-1 under previous boss Ryan Mason, but Ramsay, an advocate of three centre-halves at previous club Minnesota United, was always likely to try and change the shape, and so it transpired, with disastrous results.

Without the players to play his system (pacey forwards, naturalised wing-backs and centre-halves with the pace to recover) Ramsay's tactics were left horrendously exposed, and he eventually abandoned his much maligned back five at half-time at Portsmouth, ironically, after the club had stretched their finances a day earlier to bring him in a right wing-back.

Albion's precarious PSR position was always going to mean there would be little latitude to turn over the squad to ensure it was better suited to Ramsay, another fact that made the appointment odd.

However, they did manage to do a little extra late business on deadline day, placing their survival hopes in the hands of two 19-year-olds: Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba from Aston Villa and Hindola Mustapha from Crystal Palace.

All told, Albion's activities over the past month feel desperate, disparate and lacking in real strategy.

What's done is done now, but if a great escape from the hole we have dug for ourselves is to occur, then it will require everyone to get on the same page: management, players, board members and fans.

That has not been the case of late, and unless everyone at the club shows a bit more unity and learns to pull in the same direction, this season will only end one way for Albion.

Listen to more from Chris Hall at the Albion Analysis, external

Steve Hermon
BBC Radio WM's West Bromwich Albion commentator

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West Bromich Albion's deadline day business reflects the alarming situation the club currently finds itself in.

It's largely been caused by the financial mess the owners inherited from the previous regime but it's also the result of recent chaos behind the scenes. The acrimonious departure of sporting director and president Andrew Nestor emerged on the eve of the window closing and now they've gambled their Championship future on two 19-year-olds from Premier League academies.

American Nestor had already distanced himself from recruitment duties in a bid to rescue his reputation but not before spelling out in a pre-Christmas open letter why they wouldn't be able to shop at the high end of the market.

That was of course due to the ongoing challenge of complying with profit and sustainability rules so the lack of activity is understandable. But fans would've hoped for more than having to throw two teenagers into the deep end of a relegation battle.

I don't mean offence to Hindolo Mustapha and Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba. I'm sure the attack-minded pair are bright prospects full of confidence and desire to impress - however, it's unfair to expect them to provide the boost the Baggies desperately need right now.

Albion do at least know all about Jimoh-Aloba, having nurtured his talent from the age of six until he left to join Aston Villa in 2023.

The forward returns with a European goal on his CV, which he notched in last week's win over RB Salzburg, but that was only his sixth first-team appearance. That's six more than midfielder Mustapha has made for Crystal Palace.

Right wing-back Danny Imray also arrived last week without a senior appearance to his name for the South London side. He only made his Championship debut in the dismal 3-0 loss at Portsmouth on Saturday.

Having to turn to an inexperienced trio at this level to save their season will lead supporters to ask why multiple managers haven't shown more faith in their own youngsters.

Harry Whitwell had a successful loan - albeit in the National League at Forest Green - but hasn't featured in the league since being recalled and 18-year-old Ollie Bostock has been an unused member of matchday squads throughout the season.

The one real opportunity the Lichfield lad did get saw him named man of the match in their FA Cup victory at Swansea last month. That came just hours before Eric Ramsay was appointed as head coach.

The 34-year-old boss worked with top youngsters at Chelsea so hopefully he can get the best out of his new recruits, but he also needs to get a tune out of the experienced players he inherited.

They've shown no signs of being comfortable with the Welshman's style of play so far and more concerning, they lacked fight in their most recent defeat at Fratton Park.

All of this won't reassure fans, who fear their beloved Baggies could soon drop into the third tier of English football for only the second time in their history.

Image source, Getty Images

Today is the final chance of the season for your Championship team to do transfer business.

The window closes at 19:00 GMT, meaning teams - and fans - can avoid the usual late-night transfer scramble.

It has already been a busy window - for some teams anyway - but whether it turns out to be a day of transfer action or a pretty quiet one for your club, you will be able to keep across it all on BBC Sport.

Follow our live text coverage throughout the day here

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Villa's Samuel Iling Junior has cut short his loan at West Bromwich Albion to move to Pisa in Serie A.

The winger has spent the first half of the season at the Baggies in the Championship.

He scored once in 24 games but now moves to Pisa to help them in their relegation fight with the club second bottom of Serie A.

Iling Junior has previously played for Juventus and Bologna in Italy.

The Baggies - 21st and three points above the Championship relegation zone - have replaced him with Aston Villa team-mate Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba.

Preston were also keen to take the 19-year-old on loan but Jimoh-Aloba wants to help the Baggies' relegation fight and has opted to return to the club over North End, while Leicester City also enquired.

Attacker Jimoh-Aloba came through the academy at The Hawthorns before moving to Villa in 2023.

He made his Premier League debut last month and scored Villa's winner in the 3-2 comeback victory over Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League last week.

Joshua Adu-Donkor
5 Live reporter

Image source, Rex Features

Another bad day for West Brom and head coach Eric Ramsay.

The 3-0 loss at Portsmouth was Ramsay's third in his first four league games in charge.

Since arriving in early January, Ramsay has implemented a 3-4-3 formation, which was heavily exposed against Pompey so it may be time to go back to basics to achieve results in the coming weeks.

Ramsay needs to get the Baggies organised and playing with more attacking intent. Maybe a simple change back to a more familiar system could for at least now stop the rot before it is too late?

Image source, Getty Imagaes

West Bromwich Albion boss Eric Ramsay said his side failed to do the basics as they were convincingly beaten by Portsmouth.

"It was tough," Ramsay told BBC WM after the 3-0 loss. "We have to own the performance, take accountability and look inward as individuals and as a collective. And we have to get better.

"I am concerned we didn't handle what was an inevitable quick start - a team that really draws on the crowd. We set up in a way trying not to feed that momentum but we did the opposite and it affected the players and we need to deal with it better.

"There were some fundamentals missing for the first half that start to lead to the performance feeling short and that contributes to the levels of confidence.

"We have to address some of the basics in terms of competition of the second balls and that, as we regain possession, we are neat and tidy."

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Villa are considering the immediate future of Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba after his European goalscoring heroics.

The 19-year-old scored his first senior goal to cap Villa's comeback from 2-0 down as they beat Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 in the Europa League on Thursday.

West Bromwich Albion are keen to take the attacker to The Hawthorns on loan but other clubs have now registered their interest.

Striker Ollie Watkins is being assessed and has had a scan on the hamstring injury which forced him off in the first half against Salzburg.

Boss Unai Emery is confident the initial scan has not given Villa "bad information" but Watkins' situation - and his European impact - could have a bearing on whether Jimoh-Aloba is allowed on loan before Monday's deadline.

Jimoh-Aloba came through the Baggies' academy and joined Villa from Albion in 2023 with new West Brom boss Eric Ramsay looking for reinforcements as they sit three points above the Championship relegation zone.

Image source, Opta

There's a big game in the battle to avoid being dragged into the relegation zone as Portsmouth welcome West Bromwich Albion to Fratton Park on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

Pompey go into the game sitting 21st, one point above the drop-zone and one place and two points behind Albion.

Sunday's 1-1 draw in the South Coast Derby means John Mousinho's men have taken eight points from their past four home games and earned a 1-1 draw at The Hawthorns back in August.

Eric Ramsay picked up his first point as Baggies boss at the third time of asking last time out at Derby, which ended a run of 10 straight defeats on the road, however it was Albion's only point from their past four games.

• Portsmouth's last league win against West Brom came in December 2005 (1-0), failing to win their past five against the Baggies (D3 L2).

• West Brom have won each of their past three away games against Portsmouth in the second tier, including a 3-0 victory in this exact fixture last season, under Carlos Corberan.

• Portsmouth have only lost one of their past eight Championship games (W3 D4); this after losing three in a row and failing to score in all three beforehand (0-3 v Sheffield United, 0-1 v Bristol City and 0-1 v Swansea).

• West Brom have the most away defeats in the Championship this season (11) – only once have they suffered more defeats through their first 15 away games of a second tier campaign (12 in 1987/88).

• West Brom winger Mikey Johnston is the only player with 50+ chances created (51) and 50+ completed dribbles (52) in the Championship this season.

West Brom are keen on a loan deal for Aston Villa attacking midfielder Jamal Jimoh-Aloba, 19, who came through the Baggies academy, after an injury to Karlan Grant. The England Under-20 international scored Villa's winner in the Europa League game against RB Salzburg on Thursday. (WestBromXtra, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Friday's gossip column here.