Ryan Mason is focused on West Brom 'culture' and reveals 'respect' point
New head coach Ryan Mason is looking to "improve the identity" and create a winning culture at The Hawthorns.
Albion's boss is a week into pre-season training at the club's training base in Walsall and things ramp up from this weekend as the squad and staff head to the east of Austria for a training camp.
Mason was appointed as Tony Mowbray's successor a month ago after a poor finish of ninth in the Championship. Summer transfer business has so far been few and far between as the head coach takes in his new surroundings.
And Mason said: "I'm not here to speak about what's happened before. We're here to work together, to improve the club, the culture, the identity of the team, and to build something that's why I've come, that's what we're doing.
"Like I say, we're in the early stages of that, but it's an exciting time for me, certainly.
"I hope that that feeling is for the players at staff and everyone at the club as well because we need everyone to be on board and pulling in the same direction to hopefully achieve something special."
Mason, a former Tottenham coach under Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Ange Postecoglou, said "the most important thing" is building 'a culture and environment which buys in winning'.
"As a coach I an idea of having a perfect game looks, but we need to try and build a team to win games of football," added the Baggies boss.
"Obviously, we'll have a framework of structure, but we understand as well there's different ways we win a game of football.
"The most important thing is that we try and build a culture and environment, that all buys into them winning. That's not just a matchday, that's every day.
"We need to try and create that. That's part of my job. And then obviously the players are the ones that hopefully try and execute to win a game of football."
Mason added: "There's a lot to do. We're still building something because it's just so early on, but the players have been excellent. They're working hard, which we expect.
"We know time is precious and this time that we do have now is really important to build some foundations in terms of playing style. But most importantly what we expect in terms of how they act day-to-day around the place, the respect they show everyone inside the club that's working and giving them the platform to try and achieve something.
"So yeah, the start's been good, but obviously we understanding there's a lot of work still to be done."
