Football Season Guide

West Brom were relegated during the 2020/21 campaign, after just one season back in the Premier League. It always looked like they were going to struggle. The gamble of replacing well-liked manager Slaven Bilic with veteran relegation survivor Sam Allardyce in December failed to pay off as they finished second bottom. Allardyce has since been replaced by Valerien Ismael. Ismael impressively led supposed relegation candidates Barnsley to the Championship play-off semi-finals during the 2020/21 campaign. Ismael has managed to persuade Mowatt to join him at West Brom. The central midfielder was Barnsley’s captain and key man on the pitch last season, playing 44 games. The Baggies squad has been cleared out for their return to the second tier with several rarely used high earning players departing. There looks set to be some more significant departures to come with key attacking midfielder Matheus Pereira and England goalkeeper Sam Johnstone likely to leave. Ismael has at his disposal most of the players that were part of the promotion-winning 2019/20 Championship campaign. The crucial difference would be the absence of Pereira, if he were to leave. He was the standout player of that campaign, scoring 8 goals and provided a league high 16 assists. Ismael has a specific system and way of playing which worked so well last season. Success will depend on how well he can implement his ideas at this club and whether the players buy into them.