"I even saw Wolves & Aston Villa fans saying" - West Brom reaction given to fierce online debate | OneFootball

FLW's West Brom fan pundit has responded to the claim made by influencer Danny Aarons regarding the Baggies

It's been a difficult year for West Brom, who, despite finding themselves in an unfamiliar position at the foot of the Championship table, still have their fate within their hands.

In the early stages of the 2025/26 campaign, things looked to be optimistic around the Hawthorns, with Ryan Mason beginning his tenure at West Brom brightly.

Isaac Price was finding the net from midfield on a regular basis, and the Baggies looked like a cohesive unit. However, that wouldn't last, and Mason would struggle to find consistency, ultimately leading to his departure.

Eric Ramsay's time at the club was even worse, with the former Minnesota United boss winless in each of his nine games in charge, as former midfielder James Morrison took the helm until the end of the season, with West Brom in a real relegation scrap.

Most importantly for them, their fate still lies in their hands. With the club in an unfamiliar position, parallels between them and Tottenham Hotspur were drawn on the Pitchside podcast on YouTube by Tom Garratt, sparking a controversial disagreement between him and fellow influencer Danny Aarons.

Similarities between Spurs and West Brom have sparked a fiery online debate

On the podcast, Garratt compared Spurs' current situation in the Premier League to that of West Brom's in the Championship, in the sense that either club are essentially perceived as 'too big' to go down from their respective leagues.

In response to this, Aarons stated that it "was where West Brom belongs", and began to cite the Baggies' trophy record as a reason for his thinking, to which, unsurprisingly, Baggies fan Garratt didn't take too kindly.

This began an online debate between fans from either club, with numerous other fanbases getting involved in the debacle, as FLW then asked AI to rank West Brom in the list of the 'biggest' clubs in England, to which it ranked them 24th.

Football League World's West Brom fan pundit, Callum, has shared his thoughts on the whole debate involving Tom Garratt and Danny Aarons, saying: "Usually, I find debates online where people are saying, 'My club's bigger than yours' quite pointless, but I did enjoy this one. By that I mean I enjoyed watching the pile-on towards Danny Aarons. I even saw Wolves and Aston Villa fans saying to Danny, 'What are you on about? They very clearly aren't a League One club'.

"I think, what the discussion stemmed from, with Tottenham and Albion in relegation battles where at the start of the season, nobody would have predicted that, of course.

"But I think that Albion's history speaks for itself as one of the founding members of the Football League. We've won five FA Cups, and we've won the English top flight.

"So I think that these days, people focus too much on what was achieved after 1992, when the Premier League was founded, and I think that the past sometimes gets forgotten about, especially with, you know, people like Danny who kind of focus on getting reactions and stuff, and not really seeing beyond the Premier League.

"So it has been an interesting debate to watch and see the reaction to it."

History is on West Brom's side in this online debate

With West Brom fans jumping in defence of their club, it's clear to see why.

In their 148-year history, the Baggies have only spent two seasons beneath the second tier, with the majority of that time spent in the top flight, as they have also been crowned champions of England on one occasion, lifting five FA Cups and one League Cup in that time.

Therefore, to suggest they belong in League One would be entirely disingenuous, and Aarons was likely either unfamiliar with the club's history, and/or wanted to bait a reaction from Garratt in order to get a reaction and farm online engagement.

If that was his objective, he's certainly succeeded at that, with the online debate still raging on.

Meanwhile, West Brom will be hoping to avoid the drop into the third tier, as whilst no club is objectively 'too big' to go down, in the Baggie case, it would certainly be a shock to see them beneath the Championship.