Eric Ramsay has already suggested what future holds for Ryan Mason after West Brom sack
Ryan Mason is experiencing his first managerial heartbreak after being sacked by West Brom.
Mason was appointed West Brom head coach in June of 2025, marking his first steps into full-time management, having previously worked as a first-team coach with Tottenham.
However, following West Brom’s 2-1 defeat to Leicester on Monday night, Mason was sacked after winning just nine of his 26 Championship matches.
With Albion now sitting 18th in the table and just seven points above the relegation zone, Shilen Patel needs to ensure he gets Mason’s successor right, as if not, they may be dragged further into serious trouble in the second half of the campaign.
West Brom-bound Eric Ramsay has predicted Ryan Mason’s fate
Eric Ramsay is set to become West Brom’s new head coach, with Patel moving quickly to get his man in order to give the new boss time to assess the squad and make some new signings this month before a crucial few months begin.
Ramsay, 33, has been coaching for a long time despite his youthfulness, having landed his first role as Swansea’s Under-18s manager back in 2013, before going on to various roles with Shrewsbury Town, Chelsea, Manchester United and the Wales national team respectively, all the while building his experience and learning his trade.
Then came his first big managerial break in March 2024, when he was appointed as the new head coach of MLS side Minnesota United, where he currently has a 47 per cent win rate after 81 games in charge, guiding the club to a play-off place in 2025.
Speaking in an interview he conducted with the Mpls.St.Paul magazine in July 2025, Ramsay gave an interesting answer when questioned why he’d not taken his first managerial role in English football, and instead moved to the MLS, and he’s perhaps unknowingly predicted the challenges Mason will now face after his Hawthorns sacking.
“Being from the UK and having worked in the Champions League and the Premier League as an assistant, it’s difficult to not at least have some loosely held ambition to get back to that point as a head coach,” Ramsay began.
“But I appreciate how difficult that is. There are very few British coaches working at the top level of the British game. Part of the reason I wanted to come here was the objective data around the lifespan of MLS coaches.
“I didn’t want to lose my first job. If you lose your first job, it’s very difficult to get a second. I’ve seen lots of coaches who have had textbook rises, then they take their first head coach job in the Championship league, and they lose it within two months, and then they’ve got a big black mark against their name.”
Mason will struggle to find another suitor in English football now
West Brom fans will love those words from Ramsay, as it paints a picture of a coach who is not only very self aware, but evidently tuned in to the way the coaching world thinks, and can make pragmatic decisions as a result.
And for Mason, his words will surely now ring true, as he’s almost certainly not going to be in the running for another Championship job anytime soon given the way things went at The Hawthorns.
- Ramsay has won 38 of his 81 games in charge of Minnesota United
- They beat the Seattle Sounders in the first round of the MLS play-offs in 2025
- However, they were knocked out by San Diego FC in the second round
If he wants to continue his management journey in England, then he will need to drop down to League One or potentially even League Two, or the other option is to follow in Ramsay’s shoes and look to build your experience and reputation abroad, where there is perhaps less of a spotlight and pressure on him.