'Well known for working hard' - What's been said about new West Brom coach Tony McMahon

Albion boss James Morrison and new coach Tony McMahon go way back.

Born two months and 14 miles apart - in Darlington and Bishops Auckland respectively - the pair joined Middlesbrough’s academy within a year or so of each other at 11 and 12.

Both progressed to the senior ranks at The Riverside and made first-team debuts in 2004 having also won the FA Youth Cup in 2003/04 - Morrison scored in the final against Villa and McMahon was captain. Both featured in Europe for the club and McMahon played 137 games for Boro before a 2012 exit and playing career that spanned another nine years.

Morrison departed - via a controversial Gareth Southgate sale - to The Hawthorns in 2007 and has not been away since.

Now the pair are united again as Albion owners Bilkul granted Morrison’s wish of appointing McMahon to the backroom team for the head coach’s first permanent crack at the role.

McMahon will join experienced coach Gavin Strachan as first-team coaches as Albion’s players return for pre-season on Thursday.

Matt Gill, the assistant so crucial in helping lead the Baggies to safety, is also in as permanent No.2.

So what about McMahon’s post-playing career?

The reliable full-back hung up his boots at the end of the 2020/21 season at local club Darlington, whose season was abruptly ended due to Covid. McMahon had just turned 35.

His role at the Quakers was joint one, playing and also overseeing the non-league club’s academy.

He moved on to former club Scunthorpe in 2021 to take up a role as assistant boss under first Neil Cox and then Keith Hill, though departed shortly into the 2022/23 season after a difficult start to the campaign.

McMahon’s next post-playing role came at York City from the beginning of the 2023/24 season, where he continued to support boss Michael Morton as assistant.

Morton had mirrored the job Morrison achieved at Albion last season, in keeping struggling York in the National League, with McMahon’s assistance as No.2.

A shift arrived in September 2024 following a York takeover, when the former full-back was appointed the Minstermen’s director of football in a first executive role away from coaching.

McMahon exited the Yorkshire club last summer after a change in staffing structure was decided.

What’s been said by and about McMahon?

“I’m really excited,” McMahon said when appointed York’s director of football.

“It’s a big role but one that I’m really looking forward to. I feel really honoured to be honest to be asked by the owners to step up to the role.

“I’ll give it my all like I have throughout my career. I’ve been well known for working hard and this role is one I’ll be working really hard on.”

Matt Uggla, who at the time was the club’s new co-chair, said: “It’s a lot of the day-to-day stuff around the first team, the academy, contracts, and all other stuff that ‘Macca’ has already been doing all summer.

“I think everyone knows we got ourselves into a bit of a mess last year, and we were scrambling to figure out how we get out of that mess.

“The person who we turned to at that point, which fell into place, was ‘Macca’.

“He was absolutely instrumental in the summer to turn us around to where we are right now, which is in a far, far better place than we were 12 months ago, and even towards the end of last season.”

UEFA A coaching licence holder McMahon said: "To be honest, I stumbled into it. In the summer the owners asked me to help them out and use my contacts in the game to help.

"It was all new to me. In the summer I remember making phone calls on holiday when I'm normally away relaxing but I was doing ins and outs, speaking to agents, some of them probably pointless phone calls where nothing really came of it but it was what I had to do.

"We are in much better shape, we got the outs and ins we want."

Albion boss Morrison said of the appointment of his trusted friend: “I know Tony well from our time together at Middlesbrough. He’s had a variety of jobs in the game - and he knows me better than anyone in football. He’s somebody I trust and whose opinion I’ve always valued.”