Danny Wright

Tue 9 March 2021 9:50, UK

Every week we’ll be asking West Brom fans on our Facebook account for questions that will be answered by editor Danny Wright. You can join in by following the West Brom News Facebook account and watching out for weekly mailbag posts.

With each passing week, West Brom are looking more and more likely to suffer relegation back to the Championship.

Regardless of what division the club finds itself in next season, plenty of changes are expected to happen over the coming months with plenty of subjects up in the air regarding matters at The Hawthorns.

We wanted to know what was on your mind and asked you to submit questions for our new weekly mailbag for West Brom News editor Danny Wright to answer.

Here are some of those questions and replies:

We’ve been relegated four times from the Premier League and are heading towards a record-equalling fifth this season. The last couple of times the Albion have been relegated, discussions about a double drop have cropped up – even ex-goalkeeper Scott Carson admitted worrying about it in 2009. Last time we were relegated, we looked in far worse shape than this. Next season in the Championship, we could have Sam Allardyce in charge with Sam Johnstone, Kyle Bartley, Semi Ajayi, Matheus Pereira, Grady Diangana, Callum Robinson and Karlan Grant all in the squad and they’ve all proven themselves in the second-tier. While one or two might leave, including the manager, you have to think there’s enough quality in this squad to be in the hunt for an instant promotion. However, the centre of the midfield definitely needs to be improved upon with Okay Yokuslu, Ainsley-Maitland Niles and Conor Gallagher only on straight loan deals at The Hawthorns. It’s fair to have worries about a double drop but I’m not concerned about that at all.

Callum Robinson had a few decent games under Slaven Bilic at the start of the season but it’s pretty clear Allardyce doesn’t fancy the former Sheffield United attacker. The 26-year-old has been an unused substitute for each of the last six Premier League matches and he’d played in all but one of the league games before. Robinson doesn’t deserve to be in the starting line-up in my opinion, but I’m surprised we don’t see more of him off the bench. Look at the Newcastle game on Sunday. How is Big Sam waiting that late to make a substitution? He’d been moaning for weeks about the fixture congestion yet made zero changes to his starting line-up and waited until the 83rd minute to make his first substitution. Grant and Hal Robson-Kanu came off the bench versus Newcastle as Big Sam opted to avoid a third sub. Honestly, I have no idea why HRK is being chosen ahead of Robinson but he’s not the only manager to have seen some value in the Welsh forward. He can have an impact but I don’t think he can have more of an impact than Robinson, who is clearly a Bilic signing that Allardyce has struggled to take to.

There have been some conflicting reports about Mbaye Diagne and whether West Brom can sign him permanently in the summer. While he’s on loan from Turkish side Galatasaray, I would err on the side of caution with any reports coming out from Turkey as they are regularly wide of the mark. Express & Star journalist Joseph Masi suggested last month that Diagne could become a permanent Baggies player – but only if the club avoids relegation. If we go down, it’s unlikely we’d be able to afford him and unlikely he’d want to join us. He was playing in the Champions League last season, after all. Diagne has blown hot and cold for me since his arrival. While he’s definitely the best striker option we have, he’s very wasteful and strays offside too often. If we stay up, I’d like to see us sign someone better but as relegation is looking more likely, I’d say that Grant is most likely going to be our starting striker next season.

In other West Brom news, Lee Dixon slammed this “terrible” Albion player in the draw with Newcastle.

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