'Wasn’t good enough' - West Brom blame aimed at Andrew Nestor as exit confirmed | OneFootball

FLW’s West Brom fan pundit has reacted to Andrew Nestor’s departure at The Hawthorns being confirmed.

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…

West Brom president and sporting director Andrew Nestor has had his exit from The Hawthorns officially confirmed.

It had been documented for some time that Nestor was all but set to leave the Black Country outfit, with Maccabi Tel Aviv's Dominic Price believed to be waiting in the wings to seal a move to become Albion’s new technical director.

It has certainly been a whirlwind few weeks in the Albion boardroom to say the least, with the club bringing in Eric Ramsay to replace Ryan Mason in the dugout, although that decision hasn’t worked out on the pitch so far, with a rather lopsided squad failing to produce positive results as they have sunk into the bottom three of the standings.

News originally emerged from The Telegraph’s John Percy at the start of February that Nestor was considering his future due to friction within the board over the change of club strategy.

He had reportedly been left frustrated at their change of direction and squad planning, with the previous summer transfer window used to bring players in that would fit Mason’s regime.

But after hiring Ramsay and changing to a three-at-the-back setup, there were concerns that the players would not be able to fit the system that the Welshman was pursuing, and that has been backed up by the results so far.

And after a few days of speculation, Nestor has finally waved goodbye to The Hawthorns, ending his partnership that began since Bilkul acquired ownership of the club in February 2024.

There certainly seemed to be no love lost between West Brom and Nestor, with both issuing very short statements over the exit.

Albion announced Nestor’s departure on their website, which included just three paragraphs, while Nestor himself tweeted an eight-word parting message to Albion supporters on his X account, that read: “Wishing everyone at The Albion the very best.”

With this latest news in mind, FLW’s West Brom fan pundit has issued his thoughts on Nestor’s departure and the role he played during his two years at the club.

Andrew Nestor’s recruitment to blame for West Brom’s relegation-threatened campaign

Speaking to Football League World, West Brom fan pundit Callum Burgess has laid much of the blame for Albion’s dreadful campaign towards Andrew Nestor’s door, with the former president and sporting director’s poor recruitment leaving the squad weak and light in key departments.

Callum told FLW: “His squad building definitely left a lot to be desired. If you look at our centre-back options, they are all quite similar in the sense that none of them, aside from Campbell, at a push, have any speed.

“Only Charlie Taylor is comfortable playing on the left-hand side of defence, and even then, I’d say comfortable at a push with his performances of late.

“You look at the Fellows and Furlong sales in the summer, the replacements, Campbell, a central defender playing out of position, Alfie Gilchrist hasn’t had much of a look-in, and Samuel Iling-Junior, a left-wing-back to replace a winger with the most assists in the division last season.

“He can pat himself on the back all he wants to try and say that he tried to navigate our PSR situation, but he ultimately left us with a squad that wasn’t good enough, leaving a lot of areas that needed to be addressed and that still weren’t addressed in January.”

A big part of West Brom’s struggles has to lie with Andrew Nestor, with his combination of poor player recruitment and inability to hire the right managers culminating in a sharp decline for the Baggies.

Nestor’s credentials were called into question at Christmas time in 2024 when Carlos Corberan departed The Hawthorns to take over the vacant job at his boyhood club Valencia.

The club was clearly not well-equipped enough to deal with such an unexpected exit, while the appointment of their next manager dragged on as they couldn’t seal a deal to bring Raphael Wicky to the club.

Instead of going for their young manager mantra, they elected to appoint 62-year-old Tony Mowbray, but he clearly was in no fit state to get straight back into the rough and tumble of the Championship after recently battling back from a vigorous spell with cancer.

In the midst of a troubling financial backdrop, Nestor then elected to use a data-driven approach to appoint a novice coach in Ryan Mason the following term, who had no experience of managing in the second-tier before.

And it showed too, with his lack of proactiveness on the touchline and inability to be adaptable with his playing style leading to the club losing 10 straight matches away from home and embarrassingly breaking club records.

Then with the player recruitment, it left the squad totally lopsided and imbalanced. There was a big emphasis on recruiting defenders, but the team looks totally disorganised with the players currently on the books.

The particular recruits to replace Darnell Furlong and Tom Fellows stand out, so much so that a natural central defender in George Campbell has filled the void in that position for most of the season, while Danny Imray has been a recent addition given Alfie Gilchrist has been unable to stamp his authority in that role since linking up from Chelsea last summer.

To sell their star player in Fellows so close to the summer transfer window deadline left the club with no time to thoroughly scout or identify the right replacement, so they secured a last-minute loan deal for Samuel Iling-Junior, who openly said in his first interview with WBA TV that his best position was at left-wing-back. Meanwhile, his performances were so poor that he had his loan spell terminated on deadline day of the winter transfer window.

With such a shambles unfolding in the boardroom, it’s hardly surprising Albion find themselves where they do, with desperate leadership and key footballing knowledge needed at the top.

While Nestor has gone, and it is for the good of the club, other figures like Ian Pearce should have their future considered too, with those people also contributing to how far the club has fallen since their relegation from the top-flight all the way back in 2018.

Controlling shareholder Shilen Patel has to get a grip of this situation and make the tough and necessary decisions to get this club back on an upwards trajectory, otherwise he is going to see his investment in Albion half if they fall through the dreaded League One trapdoor.