Blame directed at West Brom Sporting Director Andrew Nestor after £3.3m signing – there are 'some red flags' | OneFootball

FLW’s West Brom fan pundit has blamed Albion’s President Andrew Nestor for the disastrous investment of Tammer Bany.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Pressure is mounting on West Brom boss Ryan Mason to turn Albion’s fortunes around.

The Baggies are currently languishing 18th in the Championship table and are just seven points away from the relegation zone, a far cry from their usual expectation of competing for promotion out of the Championship.

Mason, in his first full-time managerial role, has faced fierce criticism from the Baggies faithful for his short time in charge so far, where he has overseen the Black Country outfit suffer nine straight defeats away from home, matching a club record set back all the way in 1973.

West Brom’s struggles on the pitch are amidst the backdrop of financial uncertainty ever since American businessman Shilen Patel took over, with the club having to sanction player sales to vital first-team assets in order to avoid the club being placed into administration and facing points deductions.

Shortly before Christmas, President Andrew Nestor reiterated the financial issues and seemingly called for Mason to be given time to turn results around, although it’s unsure how far that confidence will go given the increase in toxicity levels around the stands at The Hawthorns in recent weeks.

While discontent has been aimed towards the management, frustration from West Brom supporters will also be felt on the pitch, and particularly the investment of Tammer Bany, who once again has suffered an injury that will leave him out for the majority of the campaign.

The club confirmed on its website that Bany had recently suffered a torn thigh injury in training, and is expected to miss around four months of action.

It’s been an injury-stricken stint for Bany in the blue and white stripes since his £3.3m move from Randers, playing just 50 minutes of football last season, while this term he has only accrued one minute of playing time before his latest setback.

With this in mind, FLW’s West Brom fan pundit has reflected on Albion’s signing of Bany and who is to blame for such a disastrous investment.

Speaking to Football League World, West Brom fan pundit Callum Burgess has blamed Albion President Andrew Nestor for bringing Tammer Bany to The Hawthorns in the first place, believing his injury record at Randers should have been enough to steer them away from completing a deal for the attacking midfielder.

Callum said: “I think that when we’re hearing statements and communication from Andrew Nestor, when he talks about moving to a more data-based style of recruitment, you’d hope Albion would go back to the days of finding hidden gems and trying to steal a march on other league rivals.

“But when you spend such a large fee relative to Albion at the time, around three million pounds, and if I remember correctly, it was the second-largest fee we’d spent on a player since getting relegated from the Premier League, second to Daryl Dike, you would imagine the recruitment team would be doing their due diligence and if they did, some red flags surrounding his fitness would have appeared, as he did have some injury issues during his time at Randers before Albion signed him.

“The blame does lie towards Andrew Nestor and Albion’s recruitment team for feeling that the fee was worth taking a gamble on Bany, where it was a big fee relative to Albion at the time.

“Perhaps that money should have been allocated elsewhere rather than taking a risk on someone who had recently been playing the equivalent of non-league football in Denmark.”

Ever since Shilen Patel took control of West Brom, Andrew Nestor has been by his side taking care of the football operations.

And from that, Albion’s signings have been purely made through a data-driven approach, allowing the club to scout further afield and bring players in from overseas.

So far, West Brom’s recruitment has been very hit or miss, with the club making a superb profit on defender Torbjorn Heggem 12 months on, while the arrivals of Callum Styles and Isaac Price have had an overly positive impact on the team.

But on the other hand, the arrivals of the likes of Tammer Bany, Gianluca Frabotta, Devante Cole and Joe Wildsmith have been far from good enough at Championship level, and there is a worry that the hierarchy may continue to squander valuable resources on players that aren’t at the level required to take the club back to the Premier League.

The Bany signing particularly stings given the sheer amount of money spent to secure his services, with our West Brom fan pundit Callum correctly alluding to that it was their second most expensive addition since dropping out of the Premier League back in 2021.

From this, there will be doubts starting to creep in from the Albion faithful about whether the people upstairs can recruit quality players on a consistent basis, and the relationship between the board and supporters could be stained more easily in this department given their reluctance to sack Ryan Mason.

Across the board, it seems to be falling apart for West Brom, who will need a successful January transfer window if they are to avoid being sucked into a relegation battle in the second half of the season.