"Ultimately" – Journalist now drops crushing West Brom prediction

West Brom‘s promotion chances are all-but over for this season, according to transfer insider Dean Jones.

Steve Bruce’s winless start as Baggies manager continued on Monday after his side were beaten 2-0 by Swansea to slip eight points behind the play-offs.

The new manager bounce can often prove decisive at this stage of the season, although that definitely hasn’t been the case at the Hawthorns.

When Bruce replaced Valerien Ismael at the beginning of February, West Brom sat fifth and while their form was poor, they were still in the conversation for the automatic promotion places.

But just one month later, one point from a possible 15 available under Bruce has seen the Baggies drop into the bottom-half of the Championship standings.

The defeat to Swansea, their seventh league game without winning in succession, leaves them eight points below the dotted-line and in serious danger of missing out on the top six.

As a result, Jones reckons that West Brom have left themselves too much to do in their fight to make the play-offs.

He told GIVEMESPORT: “Ultimately, it hasn’t gone well for Bruce, and I don’t see West Brom going up at this point, there’s too much to turn around.”

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In each of the last eight Championship seasons, 70 points have been needed to finish in the top six.

West Brom would therefore need to win around seven or eight of their last 12 fixtures, which is far from impossible.

However, the Baggies have only won seven of their last 25 league games, meaning they will have to turn their form around quite considerably if they want to pull off what would be a minor miracle by this point.

The eight point gap is not West Brom’s only