Comment: This is just not West Bromwich Albion is it?

Every single West Brom fan will have felt those feelings in the last two-and-a-half years - they'll have probably felt them in the last two-and-a-half weeks.

But there was one overriding feeling leaving The Hawthorns after watching what we all did on Tuesday night and it was sadness.

Sadness at what our famous old founder member football club has become - both on and off the pitch.

Amid continued concerns about the ownership and the future, there was yet another drab defeat - leaving us to reflect, yet again, on what has gone wrong and what needs to change.

But this is not West Bromwich Albion is it? Everything about this situation isn't the Albion I know.

Okay, my first memories of Albion are in the late 1990s - but West Brom have always been a side who will battle, they will compete and they will roll up their sleeves and try, just try, to give fans something to shout about.

I've heard a lot lately of what I would call the West Brom way. Playing in the 'right way' (a phrase I simply cannot stand). The glory years of Cunningham, Regis, Brown and the likes. Then more recently the Tony Mowbray era, which was sensational to watch.

Everyone would prefer to play that way, it's a no-brainer. But no-one complained about the style of play under Gary Megson when it was pushing Albion into the Premier League did they?

My point is, yes, as fans we want to see lovely football - but if we don't what we want to see is Albion players busting a gut week in, week out, to try and do their best for this football club.

If they are not good enough ability-wise but are putting in 110 per cent - we can accept that. But at the moment, a lot of Albion fans are questioning whether they are all pulling firmly as much as they can in the right direction.

Do players go out there to not try and not win? No of course, not. Could they be doing more? Absolutely they could, because they have ability but we aren't seeing it and something needs to change.

The successful teams of my lifetime as an Albion fan were 110 per cent teams. Megson's promotion sides, the Great Escape, Mowbray's maestros, Roberto Di Matteo's boys and the eras that followed. Some football was prettier than others - but there was one common dominator - they all gave everything.

And that is why we are so despondent at the moment - we don't believe we are seeing that.

The sadness just doesn't stop at what we've become on the pitch - it comes off it too.

In the space of seven years we've gone from a prudent owner who did enough to keep us in the top flight to an owner who, quite frankly, is showing he doesn't care a jot for any Albion fan.

Lack of investment, certainly in the last few years, worries about loans and whether they will be paid back - transparency is needed.

We're also in the midst of a managerial search that is nine days old now. They are being thorough, I'll grant them that, but as supporters do we trust them to get it right? Probably not, and you can't blame us given past form, it is for the club to now prove they can appoint someone to sort this mess out.

But we all know it can't really be done without a technical director. A sad incitement of this football club is that, as Dan Ashworth revealed on the Baggies Broadcast in the summer, Jeremy Peace and West Brom created this role.

They were one of the pioneers of the position that is used in football worldwide today - and yet we are one of a minority of clubs in the top two tiers who do not have this role or similar.

How does that look? Not good, and we're currently seeing the ramifications of not having a technical director in place.

On and off the field things are currently heading off course, into choppy waters and towards the rocks.

They need some sort of captain to steer it back on course, but where that comes from, both on and off The Hawthorns turf I just do not know.