West Brom make manager announcement as new appointment confirmed
West Brom have announced that caretaker manager James Morrison will lead them for the rest of the season.
Morrison spent 12 years at West Brom as a player, and now he is in his third interim manager stint at The Hawthorns.
The ex-Middlesbrough man stepped up following the sacking of Tony Mowbray last April, and he has also been in charge after the dismissals of Ryan Mason and Eric Ramsay.
Former West Brom bosses Darren Moore and Slaven Bilic were among the favourites to succeed Ramsay, but the Baggies have put their faith in Morrison for the time being.
Whether he can keep them in the Championship, though, remains to be seen. And going by fans’ reactions, some are very concerned.
West Brom fans worried about James Morrison appointment
On Wednesday afternoon, West Brom said Morrison will stay in charge for the rest of the season, and “highly regarded” technical coach Matt Gill has joined his backroom staff.
While the Midlands outfit naturally struck a confident tone and called Morrison a “Baggies legend”, the reaction of many supporters was anything but.
One fan wrote on X, “Fully behind mozza but I’ve lost all confidence in the ownership,” and another tweeted, “Three untried managers in one season, must be a record. Relegation it is then.”
While some gave their backing to Morrison, others painted a much bleaker view.
One fan wrote, “So we have made two terrible, inexperienced appointments and followed it up with a third. What a complete joke this club is.”
And another added, “Honestly, I think we’re going down. I can’t see where the next win is coming from. However, now we have this confirmed, let’s get behind Mozza and hope he can keep us up.”
Morrison’s next game in charge will be away at Sheffield United on Saturday. He will hope for a better outcome than their 2-1 defeat to lowly Oxford United last Saturday.
Have West Brom made the right decision?
West Brom owner Shilen Patel has not made himself popular amongst Baggies fans this season.
For one, he hired two relatively inexperienced 34-year-old managers, and secondly, despite having the squad capable of challenging for a top-half finish, they are just one point above the bottom three.
Reports suggest that West Brom only wanted to offer managers deals until the end of the season in the hope they could keep them up.
Some of the top targets allegedly wanted longer-term contracts, and now the Baggies have backed another unproven manager in Morrison.
After two poor appointments, many fans would have hoped it would be third time’s the charm, but instead, they have taken a punt on the 39-year-old.
West Brom have gambled already this season, and now they are doing that again here.
The last time West Brom were relegated to the third tier of English football was way back in 1991. Morrison will hope to avoid that black mark on his record as West Brom prepare for a nail-biting end to the season.
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