'93'

They say you should never return…

Giles.

Now add in Mowbray.

You can clearly see how the third to the list all transpired?

West Brom were in desperate need of a managerial appointment, with the chasm left by the Christmas Eve return for Carlos Corberan to his dream job of his hometown club, Valencia.

The road to Wicky seemed long and winding, perhaps the right fit, but the wrong visa issues for one of his staff scuppered that original Bilkul plan..

But the tried and trusted had with perfect timing become available with respected club legend, Tony Mowbray getting his six month all clear from colon cancer and was now deemed ready to be reappointed..

And when you think about it, perfect timing created the opportunity for us to employ Carlos Corberan, a coach whose tactical detail and touchline manic presence, perhaps for some, seemed too much at times.

But time always reveals.

And take away those clearly driven, Carlos reps applied to the max, and what are you left with?

The sort of indifferent form and at times player apathy that will spell clearly, your time at the club will be difficult and short term.

Of course, Carlos had his detractors, the form of the team clearly dipped, from a jet propelled start to this season of 16 points in 6 games and top of The Championship..

Reality is, we have won one away game in twenty one and nine games in forty one, this ignominious run starting in Sept 2024, four months before Mowbray.

The wheels were loosened on the Spanish baton wielding wagon, a long time prior to Mowbray’s arrival.

It seemed, for a club you can sometimes claim, is steeped in romantic ideals of the past, a return of a charismatic hero steeped in the notion of football being a beautiful game was truly seductive?

Anyone who wasn’t moved by the reception of Tony Mowbray firstly received at his beloved Boro, and then the Hawthorns, I’d be shocked.

93 days later.

It’s all over..

Increasingly, Mowbray cut an exhausted, exasperated figure, giving hints to his failure of making the playoffs, seventeen years after his glorious second Baggies season led to winning the 2007/8 Championship.

That triumph was the pinnacle of Mowbray’s coaching career, and still, the only football photo Mogga has hanging in his office at home is a photo of that team in that moment of the boss lifting the trophy..

It makes you wonder in the toughest of times battling cancer, Mogga thought to himself, what he’d give for one more time, finding that feeling again?

Going back is NEVER easy in any situation, but Mowbray highlighted for the first time yesterday, the type of characters he needed at the club to succeed, reflecting Bono’s lyric, 

‘With or Without You’.

And Mowbray clearly knew who he had to move on.

A club without you, would be ultimately, stronger.

For someone steeped in loyalty, going back to his playing days at Middlesboro’, just barely out of his teens, but immediately targeted by, ironically, the type of ‘hard man’, iron fist of a manager, in some ways now needed at The Albion.

Or in that well used and apt phrase, the lunatics can never run the asylum..

At Boro, it was old school doctrine of Bruce Rioch, in charge of a club facing imminent financial ruin, who saw Mowbray as that solid and trusted figure, wise beyond his years.

Rioch’s quote about Mowbray, was,

 ‘If I’d fly to the Moon, I’d take my captain, Tony Mowbray with me. He’s a magnificent man’

Listening to Mowbray’s now poignant, post match take yesterday, that at times bordered on a confessional, I can imagine Mogga’s similar flight would now be a solo mission’?

Mowbray was pointedly talking about next season.

Aa plan for the future.

A prescription for what is needed, URGENTLY, post his short, ill fated, at times error ridden, 93 day reign?

I suggest, Mowbray may well have had more than an inkling of his forthcoming sacking, and being the loyalist of characters, felt it was now or never to give his true, unguarded take.

Simply put, what was there to lose?

Eyes clearly needed opening.

There is an absolute need for a clear out at WBA, to create a different mindset, character and team climate.

The word, bravery was used a lot by Mowbray, ‘being brave on the ball’, being a leader maybe by deed, if not by character or voice?

Sideways, is the safe option, at times, passing the buck rather than passing the ball.

This is a blight that has hurt the club way before the Mowbray reign, and he inherited a squad without the inclination, mindset or personnel perhaps, to execute that trigger pass, to open up an opposition.

You only need to look at the stats for our central midfield, over a few years to see, it’s been one of our achilles heels and a definite part of the reason, we tend to score way fewer goals than the promotion rivals we’ve tried to get past, during these forlorn Championship years.

In Mowbray’s initial spell at WBA, he had Jason Koumas in his first season and in his second, he signed Chris Brunt, James Morrison, and Felipe Teixeira, to create a team in his true mould.

We’ll simply never know who Mowbray may well have signed during this postseason, and for me that is a real shame, but the obvious and at times justified disquiet from fans and social media became overwhelming..

But although we’ll never know who he’d sign, we certainly know what type of character he was looking for?

Players with character, loyalty and commitment to the club.

Players who trust him and he can trust…

The clear issue with taking over in midseason,

 is getting through that first period, with a team that was patently not yours, that has tried and failed to get out of this division for a few years.

Then putting your own mark on the team.

It becomes your squad.

Also, looking closely at the younger talent at the club and defining their future, either on loan or being gently bedded into first team action.

Mowbray has a brilliant record with younger players, as his Sunderland reign clearly shows, and we’ll never know how he may have influenced the younger group, but this poor run at the most critical stage of the season, became the deathknell, for his reign and our promotion hopes.

But isn’t it always the hope.

That kills..

The hope in the first home game of the Mowbray reign seemed solidly justified, but was perhaps an indicator of things to come?

After taking a watching brief in the opening 2-0 away defeat v Boro, Tony’s first home game of his second tenure started, was not for the first time an eye opening XI.

A team without a recognized forward, well how is that going to work?

I firmly believe, timing didn’t play Mowbray a very good hand, with losing Josh Maja, with a serious injury four days before he took over the team.

Maja’s shadow on the team has grown longer as the season has progressed, simply a player who left a large hole, both as goalscorer and a striker who can bring the best out of his wingers.

Maja has played fifteen games less than the second highest WBA goal scorer this year, but has almost double their tally..

But the strikerless XI, scored five, and I was watching last night a rerun of the coaches eye view of that game, Mowbray had an animated, involved, presence, who believed.

By the end of his tenure, Mowbray struck me as a disconnected, passive figure on the sideline.

Belief evaporated.

The first home game looked glorious, but it may have been a glorious mirage.

Five goals in a just over 30 Minute spell. 

It looked like Grady Diangana had at last found a coach who could unlock the key to his potential, two goals, two assists in a stunning dozen minutes of personal blitz.

But on reflection, Portsmouth were compliant in the fact they took the game with somewhat reckless abandon, being dominant early on, but in transition offered so much space for The Albion to work in.

The low block by opponents, a defensive Rubik Cube for us, is a much harder puzzle to solve?

The January Window, tipped optimism into the next stratosphere.

None of us, I’m sure doubted if we kept playing this well, and with an influx of new talent, we weren’t going to be a very difficult team to beat in the Playoffs?

There have been successes, particularly, Isaac Price, whose energy, technique and talent have set him apart as one of our best prospects for years to come.

But maybe Price’s overall ability and trust in him as a player led to a dulling of his overall impact?

Often through suspension, a gap needed fixing in the team and the trusted presence of Price did fill the void.

But were you losing far more, in terms of his strengths?

Certainly Darnell Furlong's elbow leading, and deserved red card and three match ban, not for the first time, exposed the long held belief of weakness in the mindset of several members of the so called Baggies player leadership group, but not all.

Mowbray had Price playing at right back, at right midfield, at centre forward, often through no fault of his own, but to cover for the absence of a missing player, often through suspension.

It definitely dulled Price’s impact, also not helped by the ignorance of Northern Ireland’s coaching staff, playing a player who was clearly injured, the legacy of that was not to hurt them, but to hurt us.

The January window gave us the luxury of choice in the striking department.

How could the signing of Adam Armstrong not work, a serial finisher in The Championship, a fellow North Easterner who Mowbray had successfully worked with, and who it seemed at the time, had the posture, confidence and intent of a player who thrived under Mowbray, seventeen years earlier.

Kevin Phillips.

And Armstrong is almost a decade younger than Phillips was when he signed for us.

The portents were good, Armstrong scored on his debut v Sheffield Wednesday, an atypical poachers finish, [ironically in one of the few spells he had playing up front with fellow debutant from Spurs, Will Lankshear, I think there is a lesson in there, Armstrong scored again with Dike in tow yesterday?]

The feelgood of a late Molumby winner had us all dreaming of a glorious Mowbray future.

But that old recurring theme of timing, haunted Mowbray and long term, doomed this campaign.

Why Kyle Bartley decided to pursue after the final whistle, confrontation with The Owls, Svante Inglesson, was mindless in the extreme, and the weakest, most selfish act of leadership.

I can see the incredulity in Bartley’s eyes, seeing the red card.

It was flagrant, ‘me, it can’t possibly be me, what have I done? body language and dereliction of duty.

And even more ridiculously, it was a game we’d just WON!

It was a red card epidemic to happen four times in, of all numbers, a spell of thirteen Baggies games.

All avoidable.

Playoff self destruction.

Blackburn defeat apart, the next half dozen games for Mowbray was arguably his best work, emboldened by an international window and time on the training ground.

We were then a lock in 5th position, seven points from three games at home and earning very credible away draws at the two best teams in the division and deservedly promoted, Leeds and Burnley, as well as playoff chasing Millwall, never an easy place to play.

And within those stats, that Curates egg of a season is truly exposed.

Unbeaten at Burnley and Leeds, add in third place Sheffield Utd, playing some controlled and fluent football, totally looking the part, but having a team as limited as Derby do the double over us and score five goals in the process??

Where it’s truly all gone wrong for Mowbray is the twenty two days of horror that has been largely our last six games.

I wrote an article heralding this run of games called ‘Crunch Time’ and this opening salvo summed up what we were facing and my worries..

'So called six point games, define seasons..'

Quite simply, you worry when there are more questions than answers…

At this business end of the season, you need clarity of thought and deed, it's not a time of mixed messages..'

The writing on the wall started with Norwich and the propensity for a late goal heartbreaker, a commonality we know all too well, a situation Mowbray went for the win, with late substitutions, and ended up taking that sucker punch defeat of over committing players in forward positions.

It was a goal, similar to Derby’s third goal yesterday, a soft loss of possession, and an even softer attempt at a recovery.

Tactically, Mowbray chose Jayson Molumby in a more attacking role v Norwich, to allow for Jon Swift to try and dictate from central midfield.

Not the first or last time, trust in Swift failed.

Our first defeat to a top four team came against Sunderland, and it wasn’t so much the defeat as the manner of the defeat?

A factor that Corberan quickly acted on, replacing the hapless with the assured.

Steve Bruce’s loyalty to David Button seems utterly bizarre seeing who he had waiting in the wings, the ultra consistent, talented and dependable Alex Palmer.

Mowbray never had that luxury, losing Palmer for seemingly a pittance to Ipswich Town, a situation we've struggled to overcome.

Next keeper up was Joe Wildsmith, who could at times make some instinctive saves, but also was seemingly an error waiting to happen.

You can argue, Mowbray’s loyalty to Wildsmith was misguided, multiple errors will haunt a team without a multiple goalscorer to respond in kind.

Wildsmith’s final error, flapping at Trai Hume’s savable free kick for Sunderland was one error to many.

The clamour for the returning loanee, Josh Griffiths became overwhelming, but even now, although a much better option than Wildsmith, it’ll be up to the next WBA boss to decide if Griffiths is our keeper for the future?

Turning points and games go hand in hand, football and life are situational, decision making key.

Mowbray’s initial selection v Bristol City was head scratching in the extreme, starting Issac Price as a false No.9. whose primary role it seemed was a forlorn one man press on The Robins defence, and Adam Armstrong, wide on the right and the deeply ineffectual Jon Swift floating.

Somewhere.

Doomed to failure, we deservedly conceded the first goal, but made the necessary smart, [some would say obvious], attacking changes to create an equalizer, and wrestle back control of the game.

Wrestle being the optimum word, for why on earth in a game with the tide turned, we turneth back the tide in a King Canute style, with Jayson Molumby’s ridiculous red card, when red mist again invaded the Irishman’s thought patterns.

For Mowbray, it was the common theme of opportunity gained and duly spurned and yet again, conceding a late winning, saveable goal haunted us.

A win against Watford gave hope, but it was a similar scenario of teams never being out of games against West Brom, and how we survived a late Hornet’s surge, I’ll never know?

Luckily these hornets don't tend to sting..

Results fell for us.

The results fell our way again yesterday, in another classic, ‘That’s so Albion, that’ scenario, but you only get so many chances to control your own destiny.

At Coventry, it wasn’t the defeat, but the means of the defeat that hurt us the most.

Limp, insipid, dominated, Coventry’s sharper play, stood out a mile.

Lampard has done well.

They seemed they had more to play for?

But we were chasing the same prize?

At half time, Mowbray’s remedy was urgently needed.

The problem was, that remedy was in the underwhelming guises of Jon Swift and Grady Diangana?

The antithisis of urgency.

Doomed to failure, three minutes after their introduction, Coventry got a second goal, [Swift might have got the assist?], three minutes later, an already yellow carded Callum Styles, decides to wrestle Sakomoto to the ground for another obvious red.

The fourth red card in a spell of thirteen Mowbray games.

Corberan was in charge at The Albion for 107 games and as manager he received the same number of red cards as his players.

Just one.

Makes you think?

With each defeat, Mowbray came over as a more and more defeated and distant character, yesterday’s abject defeat against Derby was the point of no return.

We simply had to start well, take the game to The Rams.

 The opening  goal would create a resurgent, hopeful Hawthorns, or turn the match into a literal Derby home game.

To concede so limply from a set piece was the worst case scenario, simply magnified by an even worse second goal, where the lack of ownership of a situation was dereliction of duty.

Where were the on field leaders when you needed them?

Mowbray spoke honestly post game about how naturally quiet some of his players are, and that can affect a performance to the role of fear rather than an eye for expression.

I think a manager as savvy as John Eustace must have licked his lips at the prospect of a Diakite, Diangana central midfield pivot.

Balance in character as well as player is so key to game planning..

Yet with a potentially impactful bench, why leave a losing situation so late?

Four changes were welcome, but the formulaic 64th Minute introduction, rather than act earlier and take the game back to Derby, has to be questioned?

In a statement game, a must win game, going for the win, had to come earlier.

With the changes, as Mowbray admitted, we were the better, more threatening side, retook our vantage as the home team, took the game to the opposition with pace and intent, deservedly scored through Armstrong.

But atypical us, we avoided eye contact with the gift horse again, Grady Diangana ran up another cul de sac too far, lost possession meekly, and a maddeningly soft defensive goal was conceded.

Cue mass exodus.

Shilen Patel, observing a literal emptying of Hawthorns, had to act, and the class act he is, told Mowbray face to face.

Our season was over and so was Mogga’s tenure.

It was just 93 days, and as I look back now and imagine this stoic, proud Teesider, walking his dog this morning by the coastline he loves the most, I’m sure he had a sense of calm but also bewilderment.

About his life.

About how life can turn SO quickly.

His cancer battle, for someone who’d rarely been in a hospital for his own ill health, is a warning to all of us, how life can rapidly turn.

As with life, with football.

The crux, maybe in a poignant interview Mowbray made on Boro themed YouTube channel, three days before he took The Albion post, led by former players, Craig Hignett and David Wheater, where Mogga, loyal to a fault, eluded to another type of cancer, that can eat away at a host, namely a football club.

Mowbray labelled them ‘Wrong Uns’.

To gain true control of a club, you need a summer purging window, something he did in 2007.

The disaffected, the problem causers, regardless of ability and reputation were moved on.

Trust was allowed to breathe again.

It seems trust and the whole squad was something Mowbray hadn’t got, and in Mogga’s final WBA interview, he clearly laid bare what was needed.

I’d advise whomever Bilkul chooses to take us forward, in the biggest long term decision that group has ever made, to watch that interview?

To ignore what has been such a cyclical issue at the club will only cause greater harm in the future.

I’m trusting Mowbray still enjoys those Teesside walks, he needs mentally, spiritually and physically, to make a fuller recovery from such a rough period in his life, but it’s hard to stop a football man being a football man?

And perhaps, that in a nutshell is what ultimately cost Mowbray his job.

I trust Tony will always be welcomed back at the Hawthorns, and the club smartly stated that hope.

After the last 93 days, it may well be some time before he returns.

Hopefully with another team, so the football man can do what he enjoys most.

Unrestricted and pure.

Trust is what Mowbray as the decent man he is demands, trust is simoly something he never got with elements of this squad.

He and the club deserve much better.