'In Transition'.

When appointing Ryan Mason, one consideration that seemingly was a given was time.

Patience after all, is always seemingly a virtue?

Yet nine games in, currently residing in a pack of teams on 14 Points, and in 7th place, at the start of an admittedly transitional phase, would seem about par for course..

But The Championship is a stranger than ever bedfellow this season. 

An overwhelmingly football meritocracy mixed with a few surprises.

One less win and Albion would be sitting in 17th with the exact points and goal difference as much fancied Southampton.

Sheffield United have amazingly only accrued just three points.

Unpredictability seems part and parcel of the fascination of The Championship, one of the truer examples of competition where literally anyone can beat anyone on any given Saturday..

Or for The Albion, any given Friday, with our regular sojourns regardless of away fans expense and working demands.

What was one of the more predictable elements of an Albion season of recent vintage is a lack of goal scoring threat, and overall our poor current return of a goal per game being inflated by Isaac Price’s early season blitz.

Our equal second top scorer, after nine games, has ONE goal..

Last season, the clues were there for all to see, a lack of creativity or fire power, post Josh Maja’s injury, creating a goal scoring reduction of seismic proportions..

And that team boasted the offensive talent and crossing skills of Tom Fellows..

One in four of our goals last season was virtue of a Fellows assist, almost three times as many as Mikey Johnston, and way in front of our third ranked assisting pair, Darnell Furlong and Grady Diangana.

With a miserly three.

When you lose the undeniable talent of Fellows and Maja is just returning to some sort of match fitness, as a potential goal scoring force, you are in trouble.

Fixing the problem, you invest.

Tammer Bany is seemingly the latest cog in a long line of the mercurial talent, showing flashes of skill in his cameo appearances, but for a player of such a young age, being plagued by injuries, is not exactly what we need.

Even back in Denmark at Randers FC, Celtic were showing an interest in Bany in the 2024/25 preseason, but his availability was again compromised by muscle injuries and he duly missed training camp.

Seems lightning is striking twice.

Bany is just twenty one years old, for the amount of money we invested, you’d perhaps expect reliability for selection be a whole lot better.

When incidents become a pattern, it’s a worry..

In an attempt to fix Albion's goal scoring situation, a considerable investment was made with the signing of Aune Heggebo, on a rare for us extended contract.

Five years.

Heggebo has since progressed to represent Norway, and no doubt is the most willing and committed of players, who relishes physicality, and is brave and as fair as they come.

But is it enough?

Or is it the answer?

Heggebo has often been playing in a deeper role and no doubt has an excellent creative side to his game, his flick to free the rampaging Samuel Iling-Junior, to break from the halfway line and finish neatly against Leicester City was one of our season highlights so far.

But there are genuine concerns.

From the off, Heggebo doesn't look composed in front of goal.

Where you need a natural, he looks unnatural.

Forced.

An extra touch.

A shot not shaped, but lashed.

Crosses flying over his head.

Maybe things will improve, but with thirty seven Championship games to go, would many people back Heggebo to hit double figures this season?

But this is nothing new.

Double figures of course eluded EVERY Albion player last season, apart from Maja..

Our second top scorer netted seven.

Maja of course has played a waiting game with his serious injuries, Ryan Mason hopefully only pushing the green light for a recent return, but it’s pretty informative that last season was the second most games Josh has ever played in a season in his career.

And his season ended in January.

No doubt, Maja is a very talented player, whether the paucity of appearances over the years will affect attempts to sign him when he’s out of contract in June 2026 is one to be seen.

Daryl Dike, in a perfect world, would be back in the US at World Cup Training Camp this week, but we all knew only too well the tragedy of the Dike narrative.

For all Daryl’s admirable qualities, you cannot imagine the Albion offering a new contract in June, and it’ll be interesting to see if the January Window will be the parting of the ways, with the MLS season starting for the first time ever in it's earliest ever slot of late February.

And therein lies our three main striking options.

Of course our current top scorer, who we may need to focus on replicating his role for Northern Ireland to get the most out of him, is Isaac Price, a player whose form for us, slipped alarmingly in September.

But at times, players dictate formations..

And Northern Ireland with their penchant for front foot football, have the clientele to make that ambitious plan work..

Front foot football?

Where did I hear that mantra before?

With width you need targets and quick decision making..

Mikey Johnston’s work rate and desire to attack is always admirable, but the rewards for a winger is getting someone on the end of your cross, and not enough attacking options are being made.

We seem very rarely to make runs from deep midfield areas.

Season on season.

Year on year.

Mikey, too often, dribbles into cul de sacs, or cuts inside to unleash a shot, but defences are wiser, flood the area and offer very little targets to aim for.

Samuel Iling-Junior, looks, well, mercurial, another X factor type of player, talented for sure but we’ve got to hope can create his own level of consistency.

The return of a fit and firing Karlan Grant would be most welcome.

Jed Wallace, always the most willing of characters and no doubt an admirable captain, but do you think opposing full backs will be worried seeing Jed’s name on a team sheet as a starter?

In central midfield, it seems Mason is more than happy with the tried and trusted pair of Molumby and Mowatt as his deep defensive pivot.

Toby Collyer’s much demanded inclusion against Millwall from persuasive cameo performances surprisingly didn't pay off, but perhaps only reinforced what a vital player Mowatt is to The Albion as the instigator and security blanket of first phase possession.

Millwall was a car crash of a performance, rivaling the ineptness shown at Rotherham in a truly surreal afternoon in April 2023.

Even Hughill, much to his delight, scored twice.

Collyer's paucity of performance at Millwall highlighted he might possibly be a better option in future next to Mowatt, where Toby could play slightly further forward, as there is no doubt we need to rotate our central midfield.

When Albion signed George Campbell, if you’d have said he’d play every game so far this season, the majority at right back, I think most people in the US would be pleasantly surprised.

And of course, this is how it panned out, the move from left sided central defence to right back would test any player, and the adjustment was an initially an unbridled success, Campbell was irresistible against one of our true nemesis's, Stoke City, rampaging down the wing, being a physical presence, exactly the type you need to succeed down at The Potteries.

But the clues to some of George’s eventual weaknesses were always on the surface.

Lack of precision in passing and crossing, a slightly nervous edge in possession of the ball, a propensity to use his hands to gain advantage on an opponent risking yellows cards and free kicks were apparent.

When George signed for The Albion, I asked various MLS contacts I know and trust, what their take on this signing was and a mixed bag of positivity of character, solid physicality, were tempered with, “it may take time to adjust” to “George will learn from his mistakes.”

That’s pretty much come home to roost, and the need to play a full back at full back, would seem so obvious, but one principle Ryan Mason has not tended to adhere to.

It’s well worth remembering Alfie Gilchrist played thirty games last season in a team good enough to finish third in The Championship, and also the third best defensive record in the division, Sheffield United.

Yet for The Albion, just one very short cameo to shore up defence in the 85th Minute away to Norwich City is his only first team stint so far.

Mason has spoken about Gilchrist needing "time to adjust to the needs and wants of the Baggies tactics", and just this week, that angle was broadened to, "we are going to see a lot of Alfie this season".

Let’s hope that ‘lot of’ starts now.

At left back the yin and yang of Callum Styles performances is pretty much part and parcel of another player playing out of his natural position.

If injuries, suspensions or simply opportunity arises, seeing Styles given a go in his preferred international position of midfield for Hungary, would be an interesting option.

Signing older players always carries that hideous risk and carnage of waste of money, rarely in recent years better seen in the signings of Branislav Ivanovic and Diego Lugano.

Charlie Taylor is just a year younger than Lugano was when he signed for The Albion, and the risk is always there.

Last season at Southampton, Taylor had four different spells out of the team with injuries, various ankle, groin and hip ailments.

Charlie had at times a promising Albion debut, a specialist full back being selected in their correct role was not a bad idea when facing one of the best wingers in the division in Leicester’s Issahaku Fatawu.

It was a solid start for Taylor, but seeing him go down injured in his second game against Norwich, was for me, the waving of the proverbial red flag..

The best full back news was the deserved long term contract offered to home grown, Alex Williams, who looks to have huge potential as a technically adroit defender, and of course following Albion’s seemingly bad luck, got injured training with Wales U21.

Undoubtedly the biggest early season boon for the club is the shoring up of central defence where partnerships always count, and Nat Phillips and Chris Mepham will no doubt go from strength to strength, showing a solidity that reflects both of their characters.

Partnerships are made through trust, understanding and knowledge of roles, Phillips competitive edge dovetails very well with the smooth positional sense of Mepham, who like all good defenders, looks like he’d have adequate time for the proverbial cigar.

For Mason, this pair, plus the luxury of playing a central back three with either Campbell or for me, if fit, the enticing prospect of Krystian Bielik, would be one of the stronger triumvirates in the division.

Josh Griffiths certainly has not let anyone down, had no chance with any of the three goals in the Millwall shellacking and was perhaps instrumental in papering the defensive cracks during the Norwich win, in deservedly keeping a clean sheet.

And yet again, keeping a clean sheet seems by far the best chance for Albion to win Championship games.

A defensive mindset can often become not the most exhilarating visual for fans, but it’s a foundation for a rookie boss like Mason and not particularly at odds with what we’ve seen in the last few seasons at the Albion, arguably since Slaven Bilic’s promotion season when his plethora of flair players thrived.

I can’t see this Albion squad chasing games from losing positions, so control from a solid defensive base may be fine, but is the polar opposite from Andrew Nestor’s long term aim of front foot football.

For Albion to move to that style of play, may take a couple of transfer windows, or a more proactive, earlier decision making from Mason, not to react too late in games when things obviously aren’t working out.

Ollie Bostock offered hope of an attacking threat in such a minimal amount of time at Millwall, showing home grown talent is there, something most Championship teams rely on.

Three games in a week in late October in the post International break against Preston, Watford and renewing acquaintances with our old defensive friends in Ipswich is a prelude to an exhausting run of six games in twenty nine days in November. 

Rotation of personnel will be vital, and by the end of this run of games, it will bring us to 40% of the Albion season being completed.

We suspected it might be a transitional season for The Albion.

By the end of November, we’ll truly know.