The outstanding question facing Ryan Mason at West Brom | OneFootball

The Baggies will be hoping for a promotion push under Ryan Mason

When West Bromwich Albion owner Shilen Patel sat down to organise his thoughts about appointing a new head coach, there were a few boxes that needed ticking.

Progressive? Absolutely.

Worked at an elite level? An essential.

Able to recognise those standards and introduce them to the Hawthorns? You betcha.

In so far as it goes, then, Ryan Mason does tick those boxes.

And, judging by the public statement confirming the new man, Mason ‘stood out among an incredibly strong group of candidates.’

In coming from Spurs, the 33-year-old has been exposed to all of the best practices that football has to offer.

If, for one moment, we forget that the North Londoners finished one place and just 13 points above the relegation zone…

He might only have been in situ for one full season but Patel had seen enough during his time at the Hawthorns to realise that somewhere in the middle of two extremes of his own experience lay the future for his club.

Carlos Corberan’s brand of football brought results - his achievement in leading the Baggies to a play-off spot last season without having had an out-and-out striker - save Thomas Brandon-Asante - for the majority of that campaign should not be underestimated.

Yet, it was structured to within an inch of its life - it may have been successful, particularly at home, but it the phrase ‘edge-of-your-seat excitement’ was never used as far as the Spaniard’s team was concerned.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was Corberan’s replacement, Tony Mowbray.

A football purist to his very core. The idea of pigeon-holing players into boxes would have caused alarm to the affable Teessider.

He wanted players to express themselves, to be the best they could be, to showcase their talents instead of shoe-horning and beating them into a rigid, defined shape.

That’s all very well when his goals are flying into the opposition’s goal.

And not so good when you’re trying to keep the ball out of your own net.

Somewhere in between those two extremes was the way forward.

Yet there was an example, close to home that may have persuaded Patel that Mason was the man.

Dare it be suggested that he might have cast a glance from the Black Country back towards the Second City and followed the blueprint set down by upwardly-thrusting Birmingham City?

It was little more than 12 months ago when American owners Knighthood - themselves with a confirmed desire to implement ‘progressive’ football chose Chris Davies to lead the Blues’ re-birth.

Like Mason, Davies was untried. Like Mason, Davies came from Spurs. Like Mason, Davies had seen plenty of elite footballers.

But Birmingham City’s boss did have extensive experience across a number of clubs. He’d been a protege of Brendan Rodgers’ at Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester City before picking up a job as part of Ange Postecoglou’s backroom team.

Mason doesn’t have that kind of knowledge. Not yet, anyway.

And Davies did have an evens-chance of success.

Knighthood set out their stall early. Budgets remained the same at St Andrew’s - they were ‘going to have a go.’

Pressure was acute. But boy, Birmingham City delivered.

The same conditions don’t exist at the Hawthorns.

Patel has steadied a listing ship. And while the water isn’t being taken on board anymore, the safety of port isn’t on the horizon yet, either.

As far as it goes, Mason fits the brief.