'Ramsay sacking shows lack of strategy'

Eric Ramsay was a disastrous appointment. There is no getting away from that. Statistically, he will go down as the worst Albion boss in history.

He is the only permanent Baggies manager ever to have a 0% win rate, and the eight league games he went without a victory are the longest any new Albion boss has gone without a win at the start of their tenure in the second tier.

Ramsay took that record off Bobby Gould, who went seven games without a win in the 1990-91 season before a victory over Swindon Town.

That win was not the catalyst we hoped it would be and the Baggies were relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time in their history at the end of that season.

They returned to the second tier in 1993 and have remained in the top two tiers ever since, but this season seriously threatens that status.

Albion are outside the relegation zone by virtue of Leicester City's points deduction, but on points per game, Albion are currently one of the worst three teams in the Championship.

So, why has it gone so badly for a team tipped in pre-season by some to be in the play-off mix?

While Ramsay - and Ryan Mason before him - will take the fall for bad results as managers always do, in truth, the problems are much more widespread.

Albion went into this season knowing they had little money to spend and would likely have to move on some of their better players because of a Profit and Sustainability Rules situation inherited from the previous ownership.

Why, then, give an already challenging head-coaching role to someone with relatively little experience?

Mason's tenure started well with 10 points from a possible 12, but after Tom Fellows and Darnell Furlong departed just before the summer transfer window closed, Albion's season went downhill quickly, and six defeats in his last eight games spelt the end for the former Tottenham Hotspur coach.

He undoubtedly struggled with the task at hand, but he wasn't helped by Albion's player recruitment either.

The loss of pace at the back and in forward areas was not adequately replaced, and as a result, Albion were often exposed late in games by lively opponents and, at the other end, failed to create much of any consequence to the point where the Baggies went more than six-and-a-half hours without a goal at one stage.

Ramsay inherited the same squad and he received little help in January because of financial constraints.

Albion's only signings were a goalkeeper and a trio of very young and inexperienced loanees (one of whom had never even played a senior game before).

Ramsay also made a rod for his own back by trying to force square pegs into round holes. He insisted, early on, upon playing a back-five system for which he simply did not have the personnel to implement it.

However, we knew this was what he was likely to do, as this was the shape he had utilised at his previous club, Minnesota United, which raises the question of why was he hired if he didn't suit our squad?

There is some debate over whether it was owner Shilen Patel or then president Andrew Nestor who hired Ramsay.

That, in itself, was a problem, as the two appeared to suffer from a lack of alignment, and Nestor left the club a few weeks after Ramsay arrived.

That is always going to trickle down and impact results, especially when it means that not everybody at the club is aligned with the direction of travel.

Albion have hired a variety of types of managers since Carlos Corberan's departure, but none have lasted very long.

Tony Mowbray managed 17 league games, Mason 26, and Ramsay eight.

This all points to a lack of football strategy from the current decision-makers, and until that is rectified with some new and experienced hires, the club will not move in the right direction.

Ultimately, this week we changed the head coach because he's the thing we can change in this moment, but the man in the dugout seems to be far from our biggest issue right now.

See more from Chris Hall at Albion Analysis