Ron Gourlay not expected to sack Steve Bruce as West Brom manager in international break
Steve Bruce’s West Brom manager job is safe through the international break with Ron Gourlay expected to “hold fire” according to Elias Burke.
The Baggies are currently 21st in the Championship and have only won once in the league all season, with the midweek 3-2 home loss to neighbours Birmingham City (14 September) piling the pressure on the former Newcastle boss.
But a decent draw against Norwich on Saturday (17 September), who were previously on a run of six consecutive wins, looks to have given Bruce a window to save himself from the sack heading towards the winter World Cup.
Writing on his personal Twitter Burke said: “Barring a change of heart, Steve Bruce will remain WBA manager beyond the intl break and into the run of fixtures heading into the WC, where he needs wins.
“He’s still confident he will turn things around, starting w/ yesterday’s display.”
In his story for The Athletic he further added: “Chief executive Ron Gourlay is expected to hold fire for the international break, allowing Bruce to prove himself over the next few matches.
“Albion have a favourable run until the World Cup break, with Swansea City, Preston North End, Luton Town and Reading to come in the next four weeks, and it is over this spell that Bruce must inspire a run of positive results.”
Crunch time
The Albion boss knows as well as anyone that he won’t be sticking around very long if he has the team in a relegation battle rather than fighting for promotion.
There have been suggestions that Gourlay wants to give Bruce the entire season and another transfer window to turn this team around, but he has to change his mind if League One becomes a real danger.
The positive outlier so far is the hammering of Hull City for the lone win this campaign, and the defensive calamity of the derby defeat is arguably its negative equivalent.
Aside from those, this feels like a side that is sleepwalking through the season on ifs and maybes, with the frustrating ability to match top teams like the Canaries, and often dominate for periods of games, without the strength to finish the job.
In one way the table doesn’t lie in that the Baggies haven’t won a game for a month so they are languishing near the foot of the table.
Yet they have only lost once in that time, admittedly a dismal and depressing defeat in what should have been a rousing Hawthorns night against a rival.
Perhaps if Bruce can find a cutting edge that has so far eluded his team he can turn this avalanche of draws into some of the wins he feels he deserves, but the longer the current run of form and results goes on the faster the chances of a playoff push vanishes with it.
In other West Brom news, one Baggies player has received an “honor” from a favourite EFL figure that fans wish he could show some of on the pitch.