Mason canned, which makes staying put doubly logical for a Dike at 100%: the new coach will be looking for fresh blood and fresh ideas, and Daryl will be starting with a blank slate.
Lee Carsley, Michael Carrick, Russell Martin, and former boss Carlos Corberán have all been linked to West Brom today. Carsley seems to the odd maker's favorite.
They waited too long imo but the writing had been on the wall... nice guy but seems he was out of his depth.
Que the immediate MLS bashing from their fans... it's funny they still consider the MLS to be below the championship in quality even though that hasn't been the case for years.
And IMO it still is, but the gap is closing. Rapidly. This is a global industry - arguably the global industry - and players go where the salaries are highest. Back in the pre-Bosman days U Michigan economist Stefan Szymanski found a 93% correlation between a football team's net wage spend and its final place in the league table. Over time, variances between leagues will reflect squad salaries. Yes, MLS players have moved to the Champs and done well (e.g. Auston Trusty) but these are also MLS' better players, no? The richer MLS teams still have average payrolls no higher and sometimes even below poorer Championship sides: the average Preston player earns $640k while the Galaxy averages $696k; Atlanta's or LA FC's average of circa $850k is quite a bit less than Birmingham or Stoke, etc. Even Inter Miami's $1.3m is slightly less than Norwich's or West Brom's averages. The Championship is the better league but the gap is far narrower than it was when I joined this site 15 years ago and the pace of that contraction is accelerating. Rapidly. IMO the 2025 Conference Semi-Finalists would give a decent account of themselves in the Championship and you'd give Miami and Vancouver a decent chance of making the playoffs. Would I put a month's salary on both of them doing that? No, but 1-2 days' pay would be an acceptable risk.
Now now, be kind. They're Championship fans, the poor dears. They probably still think Brexit was a good idea too.
Dike off after about 60 minutes, West Brom had equalized just before he was subbed via a corner. That start doubles his minutes tally thus far thus season. Had 31 minutes across 7 apps prior to day. Not heavily involved, but great just to see him out there.
60 minutes for Dike is his longest outing since the last game of last season, and his second runout of an hour-plus since his Achilles injury in 2023.
Could be a good idea. A body carrying muscle like had does stress the legs, esp. the knees, achilles, etc.
On the bench: West Bromwich Albion on X: "The Albion. @BarberbossUK | #WBA https://t.co/4rFeGUaWtX" / X
Dike came on at 61', part of a triple sub, West Brom down 1-0. Edit: 1-1 at the death! "West Brom have ended their run of away defeats at long last. After 10 straight losses and 114 days of waiting, Albion pick up a point on the road in dramatic fashion."