West Brom End Fling With Ambition & Revert to Type in Uninspiring Appointment of Sam Allardyce

Confirmed: West Bromwich Albion Become the First Premier League Club to Hit the Panic Button This Season.

Realistically, that should be the title printed in every newspaper on Thursday morning. The Baggies have sacked coach Slaven Bilic after 13 games of the Premier League campaign, and all the signs point to fireman Sam Allardyce coming in and doing one of his vintage rescue jobs.

Only, there's no house crumbling under a burning blaze of flames at the Hawthorns - there's more of a 'cat stuck up a tree' vibe to their current circumstances.

The decision to sack Bilic feels wrong from so many angles, and for many West Brom supporters, it's a huge step in the wrong direction. The appointment of Allardyce then, would be a leap back into the stone age.

The Baggies have already borne witness to some of football's most celebrated dinosaurs in their dugout, with the uninspiring list of Alan Irvine, Tony Pulis, Gary Megson and Alan Pardew all preceding their latest casualty.

The inevitable confirmation of the former England boss as the new occupant of the Hawthorns' technical area will certainly divide a fanbase, but they will undoubtedly be unanimous in their dismay that the Bilic era has ended so abruptly and in such a demeaning manner.

Bilic's arrival in the summer of 2019 was a marquee moment for supporters, whose board had finally arrived into the 21st century and taken a calculated risk on an experienced but exciting coach. This risk paid off in maximum style only 12 months later, when the Croatian boss carried West Brom back to the promised land of the Premier League following their two-year absence.

The quick summer turnaround gave Bilic and his staff little time to prepare for the demands of top-flight football, and a transfer spend of less than £40m left him relying heavily on the players who had served him so well in the Championship.

It's no surprise that the team is suffering in their new surroundings and have taken a third of the season to adjust to the ruthless manner of the Premier League. One win from 13 games tells the story of a squad out of its depth and a manager living on borrowed time.

There are some mitigating circumstances which should caveat those statistics, though. The calendar has not been kind to Bilic from the off, having faced five of the current top six, travelling to Manchester United and Everton in that time.

In fact, the Baggies will feel pretty hard done by that they only managed to secure two points from clashes with the Red Devils, Chelsea and Manchester City, after some dubious decisions went against them at Old Trafford and their three-goal collapse against the Blues.

Fortune has not been on their side, and when your starting lineup is composed of mainly Championship level or raw, inexperienced players, you need all the luck you can get. Still, even with all of these damning factors, the table does not read too treacherously.

As Bilic packs up his belongings on Wednesday, West Brom sit only two points from safety - a point better off than they were before their trip to the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.

The board had clearly banked on the Baggies getting hammered by City, creating the perfect cliff to push Bilic off and to usher in messiah Allardyce. Only the players demonstrated their love and fight for their departed coach, battling and scrapping their way to a memorable 1-1 draw against Pep Guardiola's side.

It was a triumphant two fingers to the board from the boss and his players, but in the end, it was not enough to halt the wheels in motion.

So now, it's time for the relegation dodger, Allardyce. Although this used to be an attractive prospect for supporters of endangered clubs, it now feels more like completing a transaction with the devil. Allardyce will let you survive - but for a price. He has claimed your soul and enjoyment of life's main escape, and there's nothing you can do about it.

West Brom fans know what they are in for: a long, torturous, mind-numbing six months, where all the fun and joy that they had just become accustomed to will be sucked back out of their play. The ambition is only one - don't be one of the three worst teams in the league.

Allardyce's attritional assault on the game is unpleasant on the eye, but it does get results. Well, it did. Two and a half long years have passed since he last bored Goodison Park into silent tears, and there were no tears of sadness when he left, either.

"At least he might keep you up though, right?"

No. As supporters of any team formerly managed by Allardyce or Pulis will tell you, there's more to life than results. Nothing can test a fan's love of the game more than sitting through 90 minutes of that tripe 38 times a year.

And as West Brom fans who witnessed Pulis' time at the Hawthorns will tell you all too well, even the escape artists themselves sometimes can't get the job done. When the results are as dire as the football, sport has never seemed more pointless.

"Getting results is the only thing that matters in this business!"

Short-term? Maybe. But let's imagine that Allardyce does make his significant groove in the West Brom bench, and keeps them in the top flight by a single point, playing some of the most braincell-obliterating football on the planet.

Then what? The relegation guru knows his worth, and he'll put a hefty price on his head if the Baggies' owners should want to retain his services for another year. If he stays, supporters will fall further out of love with the beautiful game, and if he goes, the club will arguably be left in a worse position than they find themselves in now.

It's all just a little depressing, isn't it? Just as West Brom were freeing themselves from the shackles of being associated with boring, unattractive football, the owners plunge them straight back into the depths of hell, partnered to dance with the unholiest of devils.

"It's a results business, so don't complain!" Baggies, get ready to hear that one a lot - all over again.