West Brom: 'Real tough ask' - Worrying Steve Bruce claim emerges

West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Bruce is facing ‘a real tough ask’ to turn things around, according to journalist Pete O’Rourke.

Bruce has made a hugely disappointing start since replacing Valerien Ismael in the Hawthorns dugout, leaving the Baggies’ hopes of an immediate return to the Premier League in tatters.

The West Brom hierarchy dismissed ex-boss Ismael after just seven months in charge following consecutive 2-0 defeats at the hands of Preston North End and Millwall.

Those results meant the French tactician won just 12 of his 31 matches in charge of Albion and the board reportedly felt the poor run of results was unacceptable for a club with aspirations for promotion this season.

Ismael left the Midlands outfit sitting in fifth position in the Championship standings, eight points adrift of the automatic promotion places.

However, Bruce’s arrival has failed to spark a turnaround in results, and West Brom have continued to plummet down the table at an alarming rate under his stewardship.

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The defeat to Swansea City last time out means West Brom have lost four and drawn one of the 61-year-old’s five games at the helm, scoring just one goal in that time and conceding eight.

As a result, the promotion hopefuls are now languishing in 13th position, eight points outside of the play-offs and 15 behind the automatic spots.

Former West Brom correspondent at the Birmingham Mail, Chris Lepkowski, claimed the current crop of players are ‘absolutely stinking the place out’ before labelling them a ‘horrible lot’.

And O’Rourke has questioned whether Bruce knew quite how big the task was when he agreed to succeed Ismael at the start of February.

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