Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Baggies' plans stalled by dugout upheaval

Is Sam Allardyce here because Albion need a Red Adair to win a desperate fire fight? Or do the club have a long-term strategy that makes Big Sam the man to build something more sustainable?

Recent history would suggest that those trusted with making the most important decisions have not yet managed to grasp exactly what it is they are looking for when it comes to the top job at The Hawthorns.

Whether supporters agreed or not with the decision to part company with Slaven Bilic after 18 months at the helm, the majority of Albion fans will have rolled their eyes as if to say, ‘Here we go again…’

Football fans can be notoriously fickle at times, swayed on the basis of just the last result, but even the most reactionary do at least have an eye on meaningful progress.

How can a club make forward steps when it goes through so many different managers with so many different ideas about how to build a football team?

When was the last time Albion looked like they were laying down enduring foundations?

It is coming up to 10 years since Roy Hodgson first walked through the doors at the club.

His tenure was shorter than then-chairman Jeremy Peace would have liked. For once, matters were out of the club’s hands as England came calling for Hodgson after a hugely successful 2011/12 season which saw the club finish in the top half, memorably demolishing near-neighbours Wolves 5-1 at Molineux along the way.

Steve Clarke took up Hodgson’s reins, began the season with a 3-0 rout over Liverpool and led the club to eighth in the table. Heady days, indeed.

But less than halfway through the following season, Clarke was sacked and every appointment since has had an air of semi-permanence about it. As each new arrival was ushered into the hotseat, they must have wondered how long the experiment would last.

Pepe Mel, the continental thinker and novelist. Alan Irvine, the long-time Premier League assistant manager stepping into his first number one role. Tony Pulis, the arch pragmatist, followed by the touchline tub-thumping of Alan Pardew. Promoting from within in the form of backroom boy Darren Moore.

Albion have changed owners during this period, but the seemingly arbitrary approach has not altered. These relatively short-lived managerial stays indicate they did not succeed, but were they all bad appointments or just not given time to make a proper imprint?

Allardyce, of course, has first-hand experience of what a genuinely bad appointment at Albion looks like. Thirty years ago, the club’s darkest season in its history involved a managerial change midway through that plunged an already struggling team into a genuine crisis.

During the 1990/91 season, Brian Talbot’s side were struggling in the old Second Division, having exited the FA Cup third round at the hands of non-league Woking and that infamous Tim Buzaglo hat-trick. Allardyce had been promoted to first-team coach under Talbot, but the pair were relieved of their duties in the wake of the headline-making Cup exit.

In their wisdom, the board turned to former Wimbledon manager Bobby Gould.

He promptly presided over six successive defeats and soon Albion, who had never before been relegated to the third tier of English football, found themselves heading for the drop.

If Buzaglo was bad, Bath was worse.

On the final day of the season, Gould’s men needed to match Leicester City’s result to stay up. They faced Bristol Rovers, who were playing at Twerton Park in Bath.

After just three minutes Rovers had a man sent off and the visiting fans, who had turned up dressed as Romans for a last day party, sensed an escape route. It was not to be, as a desperately-disappointing 1-1 draw confirmed their relegation.

The following season ended in more ignominy.

As Albion failed even to qualify for the Third Division play-offs, fans became mutinous – a final-day win at Shrewsbury was marred by a pitch invasion that led to a broken crossbar at Gay Meadow.

In supporters’ eyes Gould was the real vandal, wreaking havoc on a club in difficult times. A coffin marked ‘Gould RIP’ was distastefully paraded across the pitch, marking a chaotic end to an awful tenure.

Unlike Gould, Bilic leaves The Hawthorns with his head held high. He won promotion in his one full season and has not been able to strengthen the squad sufficiently.

The side that started at Manchester City this week was made up of many players who had not kicked a ball in the Premier League until this season: Sam Johnstone, Romaine Sawyers, Semi Ajayi, Dara O’Shea, Conor Gallagher.

Bilic barely put his feet under the table before he was clearing his desk. How can any lasting legacy be built in such a short period of time?

A glance at the top of the Championship suggests one way to operate with a manager who earns a promotion to the Premier League is with patience. When that promoted squad proves to be too weak for the top level then facilitate time to regroup. If Daniel Farke takes Norwich City up this season, they will be more fit for purpose second time around.

Allardyce could well be a great appointment. He tends to leave clubs in far better shape than he finds them. But much depends on why he is here.

If his raison d’etre is to keep the club up and nothing beyond that, then supporters will be fearful. Come the summer they will be wondering what comes next.

But if Allardyce is up for the challenge of leaving a true legacy, there is reason to be more optimistic. A project. A master plan. Call it what you want, just something for fans to get their teeth into. Because history suggests it is hard to draw too many positive conclusions about strategic planning at The Hawthorns during this last decade.

The question remains, is West Bromwich Albion a club where the supporters have a more long-term vision than the people actually running it?