West Brom comment: Baggies can use time wisely and start to plan

Yet with nine matches and more than two months remaining of the current campaign, the outlook appears much clearer.

Though survival in the top flight is not yet impossible, it is highly improbable. Now 10 points adrift of safety after Saturday’s defeat at Crystal Palace and with a vastly inferior goal difference to those rivals above, it will require something quite miraculous from here for the Baggies to avoid the drop.

Even if a team which has won only three of its first 29 matches was to somehow secure the six wins boss Sam Allardyce believes are now needed, it still might not be enough. An immediate return to the Championship appears close to inevitable.

The now three-week break until the season resumes with a trip to Chelsea would, therefore, appear the ideal time for the club’s hierarchy to start drawing up plans for life back in the second tier.

That does not necessarily mean there is pressure to make big decisions immediately, not least when it comes to the biggest of choosing a head coach for the 2021-22 campaign. It would be a surprise, for example, if Allardyce was not still at the helm when the Baggies head to Stamford Bridge on the first weekend in April.

While recent results have not been enough to spark a resurgence, undeniably improved performances compared to the early weeks of Allardyce’s tenure have at least helped lessen some supporter venom.

This does not feel like a repeat of the situation from three years ago, when Albion were left with little choice but to axe Alan Pardew as relegation loomed.

A serious downturn in results could always change things, yet for the moment the most sensible and likely course of action would be for Allardyce to remain in post.

Whether he will still be at The Hawthorns beyond the end of the season is, of course, a very different question.

A rare break in this most congested of seasons offers time to reflect and begin the conversations which need to happen with an eye on 2021-22.

Allardyce’s contract runs until the summer of 2022 but contains a break clause which gives the club the option of making a change in the event of relegation.

Whether the 66-year-old would want to manage in the Championship again at such a late stage in his career isn’t yet clear.

His record in the second tier is far from shabby, including two promotions, the most recent with West Ham nine years ago.

But should he express a desire to stay on, Albion would need to see some results between now and the end of the season before being convinced that would be the right move. With just two wins from 16 matches since replacing Slaven Bilic, it is difficult at present to make the argument he is the man to oversee a summer rebuild.

There are other, interesting candidates now emerging, not least Chris Wilder, a man Albion have courted before and who is now available following his departure from Sheffield United.

Former Baggies player and coach Michael Appleton, currently targeting promotion from League One with Lincoln, is another candidate with admirers inside The Hawthorns.

When Albion’s bid for promotion was abruptly ended in the play-offs by Villa in 2019, it was nearly mid-June before the club settled on Bilic as their permanent boss.

This time the one advantage of effectively knowing their fate well in advance is the ability to plan more confidently for what is to come.

When the curtain finally comes down on this most disappointing of seasons on May 23, there will be no excuses for Albion not having a clear idea of their future direction.