Decision made by West Brom on 29 November 2017 will still haunt the club | OneFootball

The Baggies are still bound to regret the appointment of Alan Pardew back in 2017, which led to their relegation from the Premier League.

West Bromwich Albion will be competing in their fifth straight Championship season, aiming to make a long-awaited return to the Premier League.

The Baggies failed to make the play-offs at the end of last term, with five defeats in their last six games under Tony Mowbray condemning Albion to another season of second tier football and the end of the 61-year-old’s second reign.

Interim boss James Morrison helped conclude West Brom’s final two games of the season against Cardiff City and Luton Town, with the Black Country outfit now looking to appoint Mowbray’s successor and create some positive momentum to enter the new campaign with.

The Baggies were an established Premier League side many years ago, staying in the top-flight for eight consecutive seasons all the way up until 2017.

During their final term of that run, the Baggies made a disastrous managerial appointment that ultimately cost them their place in the big time, which has since seen the club bounce between the top two divisions and fail to regularly mix it with some of England’s best sides.

Albion must still look back at this decision with regret, as an alternative appointment could have sealed a completely different fate.

Alan Pardew’s disastrous stint as West Brom manager

Former Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew succeeded Tony Pulis in November 2017 after a run of 10 games without a win and the Baggies just a point above the relegation zone.

Pardew had connections to former technical director Mark Hammond at the time, who “were impressed with what he had to say and what he has to offer.”

There was far from a new manager bounce from the introduction of Pardew though, with Albion drawing 0-0 with Crystal Palace in his opening game, before suffering defeats to the likes of Manchester United and Stoke City.

The Black Country outfit would go without a win in Pardew’s first eight games before securing an FA Cup victory at Exeter City, before a 2-0 win over Brighton secured a first league win under the 63-year-old.

The form book appeared to be turning when the Baggies then secured a memorable 3-2 victory away at Liverpool in the FA Cup, but a team incident in Spain unraveled all the good work, when Gareth Barry, Jonny Evans, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill had to apologise after a taxi was stolen from outside a fast-food restaurant in Barcelona.

That halted all the positive momentum generated over that spell, and the club proceeded to lose their next nine games before Pardew was replaced by club legend Darren Moore.

In a spell that lasted just over three months across 21 matches, Pardew tasted victory on just three occasions, while suffering 13 defeats.

West Brom's relegation in 2017 has had implications to present day

Back in 2017, West Brom arguably had a good enough squad to survive in the Premier League, but a mixture of poor spells under Tony Pulis and Alan Pardew did enough damage despite the best efforts of Darren Moore to rectify the situation.

In an attempt to build a side good enough to compete towards the upper ends of the Championship, the Baggies made it back to the top-flight just two seasons later under Slaven Bilic, but the club elected to reward the majority of the squad with a chance to play in the Premier League, which resulted in an immediate relegation back down to the second tier.

Since then, financial mismanagement ensued under the tenure of then-owner Guochuan Lai, with mounting debts around the club threatening the future of its existence before Shilen Patel and Bilkul Football Group brought the club in February 2024.

The American businessman has been attempting to grow a side with enough quality to get back to the pinnacle of English football, but currently, with very limited financial resources, it seems destined to be a long-term project for the club to once again cement themselves among England’s elite sides.

All of this has ultimately unfolded due to disastrous managerial appointments like Pardew, as without this, the Baggies could still have remained a top-flight club and enjoyed a much more successful and prosperous period than they currently are.