West Brom decision under scrutiny as Eric Ramsay faces ‘one disaster after another’ warning | OneFootball

FLW’s Baggies fan pundit points to underlying issues for their new boss

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…

Though Eric Ramsay is early in his tenure as West Bromwich Albion head coach, the sense of unease around The Hawthorns has deepened rather than dissipated.

Eight goals conceded, two defeats, and a heavy home loss from his two first results have ensured that Ramsay’s opening days have been anything but a reset moment for a club searching for stability.

While any new manager deserves time to implement ideas, the Baggies' latest setback has inevitably intensified scrutiny - not only of Ramsay himself, but of the wider structures that shaped the squad he has inherited.

Ramsay arrived with a reputation for organisation, adaptability and tactical clarity, underpinned by an extensive coaching education and recent head-coach experience abroad.

From the club’s perspective, he was positioned as a long-term appointment: a coach with a clear vision, capable of restoring coherence after a period defined by churn in the dugout and fragility on the pitch.

Yet football rarely affords managers the luxury of patience when results and performances deteriorate sharply, and the Championship, unforgiving at the best of times, offers little room for bedding-in periods amid relegation pressure.

What has made Albion’s early struggles particularly concerning is the familiarity of the problems on display. Defensive instability, individual errors, a lack of cohesion and a recurring absence of control have plagued the club across multiple managerial reigns.

The scale of the recent defeat has reignited questions about where responsibility truly lies.

Is this simply a squad low on confidence, shaped by months of dysfunction and ill-equipped to absorb new demands at short notice? Or do the early signs point towards a mismatch between Ramsay’s preferred tactical framework and a group assembled without sufficient balance or foresight?

Increasingly, attention is being drawn back to recruitment decisions made long before Ramsay’s appointment, and to whether the foundations laid in the summer have left Albion exposed regardless of who occupies the technical area.

Early pressure mounts on Eric Ramsay as West Brom’s familiar problems resurface

Speaking to Football League World, in-house Baggies fan pundit Callum Burgess was forthright in his assessment of Ramsay’s tenure thus far.

“I think there's questions over Ramsey in his start to life as Albion manager, as well as the board and Andrew Nestor in their decision to appoint Ramsey,” Burgess told FLW.

“The squad was so poorly put together in the summer following the departures of Darnell Furlong and Tom Ferows.

“They looked towards George Campbell, who's naturally a centre-back, and Alfie Gilchrist, who can't seem to get a minute on the pitch now.

“And you look at the Tom Fellows replacement, Samuel Illing-Junior, we're seeing now that all this time his best position was a left wing back, because, to be honest, I've had my criticism of Illing-Junior, but he’s the only player who's not looked incompetent over the last few games.

“When you then go and appoint a manager who's very clearly suited towards playing the three at the back system with wingbacks, the right-hand side, the issues that the board created in the summer with the lack of replacement for Fellows and Furlong are just being magnified even more now.

“So again, back to Ramsay, he was described to us as someone who was adaptable and flexible. I think that if he doesn't change the system very quickly and fast, then it's just going to be one disaster after another.

“This 5-0 defeat has to be a very big wake up call for all involved from the board down to the manager then down to players.”

Deeper structural issues threaten to undermine Eric Ramsay’s early work at West Brom

The criticism levelled is notable not for its impatience, but for the way it situates Ramsay within a broader chain of accountability.

Rather than reducing the Baggies’ struggles to a simple managerial misstep, it highlights the cumulative impact of recruitment choices, gaps in the squad and the consequences of appointing a coach whose strengths may inadvertently amplify existing weaknesses.

Ramsay has been described by the club as adaptable and flexible, qualities that will now be tested sooner than anticipated. The Championship rarely waits for theory to catch up with reality, and systems that rely heavily on specialist roles can quickly unravel if the squad is not built to sustain them.

Persisting with an approach that exposes known deficiencies risks turning short-term turbulence into long-term damage, both to results and to confidence in the appointment itself.

Yet it would be overly reductive to frame the current predicament as a referendum on Ramsay alone. Albion’s recent history offers a cautionary tale: successive managers have arrived with differing ideas, only to be undermined by the same recurring issues.

The danger, once again, is that a coach becomes the visible casualty of deeper strategic failings, while the underlying problems remain unresolved.

Ramsay’s media appearances suggest an awareness that there are no quick fixes available. The challenge is whether he can adapt quickly enough to steady a fragile group without abandoning the principles that earned him the role in the first place.

The coming weeks will also serve as a test of the board’s commitment to long-term thinking in an environment that continually demands short-term survival.

What is clear is that the Baggies’ situation cannot be divorced from the decisions that preceded Ramsay’s arrival.

Until recruitment, tactical identity and leadership operate in genuine alignment, any head coach - regardless of pedigree - risks inheriting the same cycle of instability.

The latest results may act as a wake-up call, but whether it prompts meaningful course correction remains the defining question of the remainder of West Brom’s season.