West Bromwich Albion have terminated the appointment of head coach Ryan Mason following a damaging 2-1 defeat to Leicester City on Monday evening, which extended the club’s dismal away form to 10 consecutive losses and left their promotion ambitions in tatters.
The Championship club confirmed Mason’s departure on Tuesday, alongside assistant head coach Nigel Gibbs and first team coach and head of performance Sam Pooley, as the Baggies languish in 18th position in the second-tier table, a troubling 10 points adrift of the play-off places.
“West Bromwich Albion have today parted company with men’s first team head coach Ryan Mason,” the club said in an official statement. “Assistant head coach Nigel Gibbs and first team coach/head of performance Sam Pooley have also departed The Hawthorns.”
The decision comes after Abdul Fatawu’s stunning 94th-minute volley at the King Power Stadium delivered a crushing blow to West Brom’s hopes of salvaging a point against their promotion-chasing opponents. The result marked the Baggies’ sixth defeat in eight matches, a run of form that has left the club’s hopes of returning to the lucrative Premier League increasingly remote.
Speaking after Monday’s defeat, Mason had appeared resigned to the club’s predicament, admitting the result “summed up our season” and highlighting his side’s lack of “killer” instinct in front of goal.
“Last seven or eight games, obviously we’re on a disastrous run but in terms of the performances and goalmouth action, shots on target, chances created, we’ve come out on top in every single game,” Mason said. “But we haven’t been able to transfer that to results and unfortunately we’ve been punished again tonight.”
The former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder’s tenure at The Hawthorns has been marked by a troubling inability to convert dominant performances into victories, particularly away from home, where West Brom have failed to secure a single win in 10 successive attempts. That wretched record has become untenable for a club with ambitions of returning to England’s top flight.
West Brom’s next fixture is an FA Cup third round tie against fellow Championship side Swansea City on Sunday, before they return to league action on January 16 when second-placed Middlesbrough visit The Hawthorns. The club will need to move swiftly to appoint a replacement ahead of that crucial encounter against one of the division’s form sides.
Mason’s dismissal represents the latest chapter in West Brom’s turbulent recent history. The club, which has yo-yoed between the Premier League and the Championship in recent years, has struggled to establish stability both on and off the pitch. Since their most recent relegation from the top flight, the Baggies have cycled through multiple managers, each tasked with the increasingly elusive objective of securing promotion back to the Premier League, where lucrative broadcasting revenues and commercial opportunities await.
The club’s failure to mount a credible promotion challenge this season will come as a significant disappointment to supporters who had hoped for a swift return to the top division. West Brom’s fall to 18th position represents a dramatic decline for a club that has traditionally been one of the Championship’s stronger sides.
Mason, 33, took charge at The Hawthorns with a reputation built largely on his brief spells as interim manager at Tottenham Hotspur, where he twice stepped into the breach following managerial departures. His appointment at West Brom was seen as an opportunity to prove himself in a permanent role, but the demands of Championship football and the pressure to deliver immediate results have ultimately proven too much.
The Championship is widely regarded as one of the most competitive and unforgiving leagues in English football, with 24 clubs battling for promotion to the Premier League or to avoid relegation to League One. The financial gulf between the top flight and the second tier has intensified the pressure on clubs like West Brom, where parachute payments from previous Premier League campaigns can only provide a temporary cushion.
For West Brom, the immediate priority will be to identify a successor capable of reviving the club’s fortunes and steering them away from any threat of a relegation battle while simultaneously rebuilding confidence ahead of the second half of the season.
