Comment: Budget blown, it’s time for a big rethink at West Brom

Though the precise nature of what is being planned remains unclear, this week’s revelations about the Baggies’ financial situation provided a clue.

It is pertinent to point out first of all that the club remains, to borrow the words of chief executive Mark Jenkins, ‘financially strong’.

Albion are hardly the first club to require an overdraft facility. There are plenty of others, in both the Premier League and below, who operate despite carrying considerable levels of debt.

Yet it is undoubtedly a significant development at Albion, a club who for more than a decade have been held up as the model of how to achieve relative success on the pitch while keeping the books in shape off it.

Even more glaring is the speed at which things have changed.

From having almost £40million in cash at the bank nine months ago, the Baggies now find themselves in the red.

It does not take a genius to work out where most of the money has gone. Last summer the club spent big on signings like Oliver Burke, Jay Rodriguez and Kieran Gibbs. They have received very little in return.

During a briefing with local media last Friday, chief executive Mark Jenkins stopped short of promising a return to the frugal ways of the Jeremy Peace-era, though he did express a desire to restore some of the principles from that time.

Jenkins, who returned to the club last month, spoke with a genuine passion. It was impossible to avoid the impression he has taken the club’s rapid change in financial fortunes personally. Frankly, it is not hard to understand why.

As Peace’s right-hand man, Jenkins helped establish the ‘model’ which made the Baggies a top-flight fixture for the best part of a decade.

Relegation – and more crucially the changing face of the game – means that model must now change.

“We have to adapt and evolve,” said Jenkins.

Whatever might happen in the weeks and months ahead, one aspect the club must surely improve is player recruitment.

After all, it is failings in that area which has left the club out of pocket and facing a fall into the Championship.

Last summer’s largely disastrous spending splurge will obviously been held up as the chief reason for the Baggies being at the foot of the table.

In a division where there is little to choose between the teams outside the top six or seven, all it requires is one bad transfer window to leave you in trouble. Albion, it is fair to say, had a bit of a stinker.

Centre-back Ahmed Hegazi has arguably been the best of the bunch, even though the Egyptian international’s arrival has coincided with the Baggies being a far less certain team at the back.

Hegazi was at least relatively cheap. Of the major signings, only Rodriguez has made a consistent contribution, bagging nine goals to stand as the club’s top scorer.

Oliver Burke has barely played due to persistent injury, while Gibbs has been a disappointment.

Gareth Barry joined for just £800,000 but, despite a bright start, has lacked consistency, while the loan capture of Grzegorz Krychowiak from Paris St Germain – hailed at the time as something of a coup – has simply not worked out.

The Poland international, who earns considerably more than any permanent player in the dressing room, was supposed to be the man to take the team to the next level. Instead, flashes of brilliance have been few and far between.

In addition to the failure of their summer recruits, Albion have suffered from several members of the much less lauded but initially more productive previous year’s transfer class going off the boil.

Both Allan Nyom and Matt Phillips have failed to capture the form of last season, while Hal Robson-Kanu has found the net only twice. Nacer Chadli, the club’s record signing, has played a total of just 16 minutes in five months.

The uncomfortable truth is that, wayward as last summer’s spending spree might have been, Albion’s recruitment has been at best inconsistent for several years, spanning the reigns of several head coaches.

It is why Chris Brunt, fantastic servant and undoubtedly good player that he is, remains among their most creative threats. As a team, Albion have simply failed to evolve.

Jenkins is driven to turning the club around but knows the task ahead of him is a considerable one. Ensuring the club do a better job in the transfer market will be near the top of his agenda.