'The Mason Months’... The End of Ryan Mason's Reign as Baggies Boss. Jan 6th 2026.

You are said to born to lead.

For some, it’s as natural as breathing.

For others, it’s just not in their character, in their DNA.

In other words…

Do 

Not 

Appoint

So it may well have proven for Ryan Mason, an ambitious appointment by the Bilkul Group, looking to hand their reins, long term, [and the obvious financial jeopardy of 'paying off' that contract, ‘if’, as the Mason scenario proved], with a recruitment failure.

And not for the first time.

Yesterday’s game against Leicester City was in many ways a microcosm of Mason’s six months at The Albion.

Start well, get the fans believing, a muddled dip in the middle and ultimately a defeat with culpability issues over in game management skills, leadership, player responsibilities and organization on the pitch..

It was undeserved and viewed in the eyes of the Albion’s faithful as a final step too far.

But live our life?

Ten away defeats on the bounce…

30 Points available for zero return..

15 hours of football.

Countless hours of driving, catching trains, giving up work time, social time, getting back at ungodly hours..

Away fans often hold the key to a manager’s destiny.

You lose them at your peril..

Conversely, yesterday, the Albion faithful were, as Mason rightly acknowledged, "brilliant, behind the team the whole way".

Late, losing, AVOIDABLE goals resonate and hurt, it’s a stinging defeat whether you get hammered, or you get robbed..

But the key word is AVOIDABLE…

Carlos Corberan, Tony Pulis, Gary Megson, all had that penchant, when needed, for grinding out results.

Playing stick rather than twist.

Each a demanding figures on the training ground and on the touchline..

Squeezing every ounce out of a game..

Avoiding the Avoidable…

An away draw can totally be an acceptable conclusion to a game, a place to build on…

To scrutinize a goal, is perhaps overstating a moment in time..

But that goal?!

It was the final dereliction of duty, when focus and leadership were the order of the day, and perhaps the two elements we most need if we are to get out of this relegation type form..

Nine defenders, four attackers, and yet still we offer an oasis of space to one of the best forwards in The Championship..

A silver platter, when it should have been a solid shield..

An unerring finish and a symbolic coup de grace for Mason’s tenure..

There was no way back for a coach and a team in reverse..

This was ALWAYS going to be the game Mason could not afford to lose, possibly a point would merely be delaying the inevitable, but a defeat, impossible to come back from.

Performance, as edifying and encouraging as it was, can only be truly defined, at this stage, by the result..

Ryan Mason was always the Bilkul first choice, a seemingly solid pedigree, recommended by managers of prestige, someone whose overcome more obstacles in life than most, showing fortitude and determination to deal with the grimmest of injuries and long term health situations.

Mason was eloquent, considered, but crucially, inexperienced..

Teams often reflect a coaches personality, Mason seemed a somewhat introverted, introspective character, less prowling the touchline than standing.

Passive.

Maybe Ryan overthought situations, made changes when changes weren't needed or didn't bring in players when they were?

The Molumby hug after the second half fightback win v Swansea in November had shades of togetherness, but why did it take a half to get the team going?

One of Mason's issues was failing to get complete 90 Minute performances.

Half's won't win hearts and minds.

However, in a situation way beyond Mason's days and applicable to both Ismael and Corberan, the troubling, recurring pattern of recent seasons, August was an extremely happy month to be a Baggie, portents seem always positive, as it was with Mason, four games and ten points.

As with previous Albion bosses of recent vintage, this early form looked to be a mirage in the greater scheme of things to come.

International windows can either be a place to stymie progress or give valuable time for coaches to hone in on team shape, develop the squad, strange how both windows in Mason’s reign were utter failures in terms of development?

Post Sept and November’s windows, two wins in ten.

And begs the question, how many players improved through Mason and his array of coaches, a yardstick to judge any manager.

No doubt, selling your best players to survive and rebuild is something many clubs have dealt with, but it’s a perilous but necessary existence, astriding the tightrope of FFP rules..

Losing 34 Million in a season was dumbfounding, the ‘steam train’ hurtling towards you are points deductions..

And with that, relegation..

The high earners and the talented have to go, Fellows and Heggem are hard holes to fill, but reinvestment is vital for the Albion ship to be steered away from choppy waters.

Reinvestment has at best been mixed, Heggebo an undoubted success, Tammer Bany, admittedly purchased pre Mason, was money we could barely afford to squander..

Recruitment certainly hurt Mason, the impact of loanees, has been nothing short of woeful, but shades of perhaps, being unlucky.

The Napoleon Bonaparte adage of rather having a lucky general than a good one, can in some ways apply here with Mason, over 200 years later.

But of course in life, it can be a case of making your own luck...

No doubt, a fit and firing Toby Collyer would have added so much to central midfield, the engine room of any team, but without alternatives, the demands of The Championship can clearly be seen to be too much.

A Collier rotation with Jayson Molumby and Alex Mowatt may well have worked well, conserving minutes in legs, but not compromising the quality.

Injury, upon niggling injury ruined that plan, and left us with an honest but limited alternative at this level in Ousmane Diakite.

It's a key area that clearly lacks depth, unless bringing in Callum Styles, but then exposing the left back part of the defence.

Other incoming players have flattered to deceive, or simply deceived..

Samuel Iling Junior, rather than impacted, has weakened wide, attacking areas, and has gone missing in action in key defensive moments.

Alfie Gilchrist cuts a confused figure, at odds with a player who thrived last season with Sheffield Utd, who just missed out on automatic promotion.

Similarly, Chris Mepham, a key component of the defensive strength that propelled Sunderland to the Playoffs and promotion to the Premier League..

Just months ago..

What happened?

How can both regress so quickly here and lose seemingly much of their confidence in just a few months?

Confidence is something Josh Griffiths has clearly lost, looking more nervous in possession, after the shock seven game re-introduction of Joe Wildsmith??

There is always a knock on effect to selling your best players, the biggest impact on us, one we’ve not come close to recovering from, is transferring Alex Palmer to Ipswich.

It was just eleven months ago, but the stability and consistency Palmer gave us has not been close to being replaced.

Mason’s in game management skills have at times baffled, the obvious nadir being replacing the wizardry of Mikey Johnston, who was in irresistible form against Coventry, in an atypical brilliant first half, [possibly the best 45 Minutes of Mason's tenure], but threw away that template, replacing MJ, seeing Iling Junior’s threat to the Sky Blues to be a more productive second half option??

Decisions have repercussions, Molumby’s complete dereliction of duty and his wholly avoidable red card, two minutes into the change, ultimately altered the course of the game, and led to defeat..

A more gnarly manager, post game may have offered a more underhand, less honest answer than Mason for his tactical blunder of replacing Johnston, but that was inexperience in a nutshell..

To argue, Johnston and Iling Junior carried the same threat was folly.

Similarly, admitting having Krystian Bielik on the bench for morale rather than to impact on the pitch was a situation that quite rightly opened up Mason to scrutiny, simply naivety in the extreme and easily avoidable, with more managerial nous.

Bielik looks the part, probably is the part, but the part has to be fit to play, again his overall lack of availability hugely impacted Mason.

The in game management became more and more baffling, reactive rather than proactive seemed the Mason way, or was it simply a realization of the limits of the squad at his disposal?

Change for changes sake, formulaic or pre planned, or misreading the game, who knows?

Isaac Price has put in the miles but not impacted in recent weeks, such a talented and key player, one of those, if he’s on his game, the team thrives, it’s as simple as that..

He was thriving yesterday, yet was replaced, to understandable ire from a player desperate to re find his form, a usual suspect being suspect in his positional play late on, partly causing the winning, Leicester goal.

Moments like that count.

We lost all rhythm and critically this made us an easier opponent to play against.

The continued lack of minutes for Daryl Dike is utterly bewildering and perhaps with a new boss, we might unearth the truth?

Certainly the lone furrow, Aune Heggebo has worked with such earnest endeavour and no lack of skill and goals, is one of the few successes, not only in Mason’s reign but also Bilkul’s vision of replacing and perhaps future selling at a higher value.

You take out Heggebo from the game at your peril, in any level of football, taking away your prime scoring source is meddling with danger..

The only alternative, unless you need an American striker with five minutes to go, is Josh Maja who simply seems to be the product of two very serious injuries and the player who was such a handful is now sadly a physical shadow of his former self, belying his relatively young age of just turning 27 years old last week.

With changes, opponents become emboldened, sensing this is their moment…

There is no fear factor.

Far too often late goals have been conceded with a weaker XI finishing a game.

It’s not a coincidence, it’s a fact..

Good teams get relegated from every division, your past means zero at the start of the season and the table NEVER lies..

Reverse is often the hardest gear to get out of, and maybe one of the only good things for us this season has been the sad demise of Sheffield Wednesday, such a proud club, evoking the adage of lions led by donkeys…

It means we only have to finish above two clubs who’ve not had their hands tied behind their backs this season.

Our donkey is thankfully long gone and we can’t thank Shilen Patel and The Bilkul Group enough, but their next decision has to be quick and has to be right..

Was there a contingency plan for Mason’s failure?

The lessons of heart over head and the Mowbray appointment have to be learned..

We are 18th, sliding horribly, gaps between flailing teams quickly disappear, otherwise it becomes six pointers against the likes of Blackburn, Charlton, Portsmouth, Norwich City and Oxford Utd in the near future..

Shilen Patel has huge faith in his friend and fellow American, Andrew Nestor, but this faith must now perhaps be at its absolute breaking point..

Bilkul HAVE to get this one right, otherwise the calamity of relegation will have overriding impacts on the financial future of The Albion.

Big clubs have fallen before..

Unless Nestor gets this right and we maximize our squad capabilities we may well be the next…

I wish Ryan Mason well, such an honourable person, whose honesty may well have got the better of him and whose inexperience has probably cost him the job..

He’ll learn..

Will we??