If the Daily Telegraph is correct, Ryan Mason may be the new manager at West Bromwich Albion within a matter of days. John Percy wrote in the paper yesterday that Mason, a Tottenham academy graduate, former player, and assistant coach and who has taken charge of Spurs’ first team on an interim basis twice, is the “top choice” for the Baggies to permanently replace Tony Mowbray at The Hawthornes next season.
Mason is regarded as an impressive young assistant coach and has been linked to a number of recent job openings over the past couple of seasons. The closest he got to an actual head coaching position was last October, when he was a finalist for the job at Anderlecht, though he and the Belgian club “mutually” withdrew interest after talks. He also had attracted interest from a couple of unnamed Championship clubs right around the time Ange Postecoglou took the head coaching position at Tottenham.
The Telegraph writes that West Brom is likely to approach Tottenham about appointing Mason “within 48 hours,” though this article published yesterday so the time frame is probably shorter than that now. Either way I’d guess that we’ll get a resolution of some sort yet this week.
Mason is an ambitious young coach. After his second stint as interim manager of Tottenham, after Spurs sacked Cristian Stellini, Mason threw his hat in the ring for the Spurs job. He was never likely to get it, especially since he had zero head coaching experience, but he got points for chutzpah.
In truth, West Brom is a pretty good gig for Mason. They finished mid-table in the Championship last season with a +10 GD in a highly disruptive season. They also have a genuine young star in 21-year old midfielder Tom Fellows, who had 4G+14A for the Baggies last season; keeping ahold of him would be key, but might also be difficult as he’s heavily linked with a summer move to Everton where he’d replace Jack Harrison.
Will “BIG WILLY LANKS” Lankshear also spent the spring at WBA on loan, and Mason’s obvious connection to Spurs could mean a fruitful Championship loan pathway for Tottenham’s young stars-in-waiting.
But more than that, it’s probably just time for Mason to make the jump to an actual head coaching position. He’s spent a number of years now working under some of the biggest names in football — we may have feelings about Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, but you can’t argue that they’ve definitely proven themselves. Mason has also been one of Ange Postecoglou’s top assistants the past two seasons, coaching a vastly different style of football.
This is without question the most prominent job he’s been linked to and it says a lot about him that a club that has been in the Premier League as recently as 2021. I’m actually really curious as to what kind of manager Mason will be and how he would lead a Championship team that should have a lot of promise. We may soon find out.