Nestor Vipers

Baggies President Needs To Be Deposed

Andrew Nestor’s picture on X

You don’t need to be an ITK to know that The Baggies are a dysfunctional, divided football club. Just look at performances on the field. The 0-3 embarrassment away at Pompey was almost as bad as the 0-5 tonking by Norwich just 11 days earlier. Never mind the widely reported fallout between Chairman Shilen Patel and Sporting Director Andrew Nestor, there is a clear disconnect between new Head Coach Eric Ramsay and his hapless squad, who have been tasked with adapting to a new 3-4-3 formation, despite lacking the personnel to implement it.

Ramsay can not be spared criticism. Given that he has had only minimal time to work with the squad on the training ground, his radical tactical reshaping speaks of a Head Coach with a dogmatic adherence to a particular style, not the pragmatist we were promised. Don’t be surprised if his reign turns out to be the shortest of any permanent manager in Hawthorns history.

Nestor’s position is even less tenable, given his dismal recruitment record. Working against an admittedly difficult financial background, inherited from Guochuan Lai’s ramshackle stewardship, he has assembled a squad lacking in mobility and shorn of fight. The notable success of Torbjorn Heggem - signed for £600k, sold a year later for £6million - was a rare moment of illumination.

The departure of Samuel Illing Junior continues a dismal run of loan players in Nestor’s time, along with the hapless Uros Racic, Mason Holgate and Lewis Dobbin. Goalkeeper Max O’Leary, signed on a short-term deal to cover the deficiencies of Josh Griffiths and Joe Wildsmith has, in the space of two games, dropped an easily catchable ball at the feet of Patrick Agyemang to gift Derby a goal and allowed a shot by Millenic Alli to whistle through his legs for Portsmouth.

Just three months ago, Nestor was granted the hubristic title of President, “managing all club functions, alongside his existing role as Sporting Director, which he assumed in the summer of 2024.” Yet the vital appointment of a specialist Technical Director remained as elusive as ever, leaving Albion short of football knowledge in the boardroom. The embarrassing, failed pursuit of Rafael Wicky, along with Tony Mowbray’s short-lived return and Ryan Mason’s dreadful regime all count in the debit column.

Add to this, the baffling appointment of Ramsay, who has taken an axe to Mason’s tactics board, thus defeating the continuity promised by the modern ‘Head Coach model’ of running a football club.

Nestor has faced criticism in some quarters for his data-led approach, but no modern football club succeeds without statistical insight. Brighton owner Tony Bloom has used analytics to drive success at Union St Gilloise in Belgium and Hearts in Scotland, as well as his original club on the South Coast. Bloom’s former sidekick Matthew Benham has worked similar miracles at Brentford.

Data aren’t the problem - but having the football intelligence to interpret them is the key and the evidence suggests this a talent Nestor lacks. Whether or not he’s fallen out with Shilen Patel, in a results-based business, he deserves the P45 coming his way - a President unworthy of a second term.