West Brom need transfer overhaul as Steve Bruce's mission fails

West Brom’s season plunged to new depths on Monday night as they turned in another harrowing display and, as a result, were turned over again by Swansea City.

Boos rung around The Hawthorns again after late goals from Joel Piroe and Cyrus Christie settled the scores and inflicted the latest defeat on a group of players who were rightly and heavily criticised by an increasingly dwindling Hawthorns crowd.

These are dark days indeed for Albion, and the challenge for new boss Steve Bruce - who has now lost four of his five games in charge - is mounting by the week.

“You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” rung around The Hawthorns before the end, when Christie hammered the ball home, unmarked, at the back post. For the second time in the evening, Sam Johnstone failed to cover himself in glory.

A bottom half finish - unthinkable at the beginning of the campaign - awaits Albion on this evidence, and that of what we’ve seen in recent weeks either side of Valerien Ismael’s sacking.

Forget the play-offs, any kind of promotion. Even Bruce cast doubt over it here. It’s become increasingly apparent that Albion just need this hellish season to end.

There’s a crisis of confidence at the club, and the players must shoulder plenty of the grief. They got both barrels from the Smethwick and the Brummie as Christie rifled in the second goal which sealed Albion’s fate. Claims of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” ought to cut deep for a bunch of players for whom many Albion has been their home for years, but we’ll see.

A mid-table finish, anywhere between 10th and 18th, now looks the most probable outcome for a club which has fallen off the edge of a cliff in frightening fashion. Let it not be forgotten that they posted the club’s longest