Ryan Mason won’t like his transfer budget if he becomes new West Brom boss, ‘Shilen Patel has already committed’

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EFL Analysis can confirm what we could expect West Bromwich Albion’s spending to look like next season, and it won’t please Ryan Mason.

Mason looks set to land the West Brom job after the Baggies made the decision to sack Tony Mowbray once their Championship play-off hopes came to an end.

West Brom fans have been confused by the decision to go for Mason, who is yet to manage a senior club full time.

The former Tottenham Hotspur and Hull City midfielder has been at Spurs working in the backroom staff of Ange Postecoglou’s side and Mason could use his Spurs links at West Brom if he got the job.

It’s a squad that needs a major overhaul but owner Shilen Patel may be handing Mason some bad news early doors.

• READ MORE: West Brom have already been warned against ‘big risk’ as surprise managerial target emerges

Finance expert predicts low-spending summer for West Brom

Albion are still getting used to life without parachute payments after being consigned to the Championship since the 2021/22 season.

And even though owner Patel has already “committed £25m to cover the club’s running costs”, EFL Analysis’ finance expert Adam Williams is forecasting a summer without money being splashed around at The Hawthorns.

“you’ve got annual losses of £35m, which was the second-worst in the division. For a non-parachute payment club, their wage bill was also pretty massive. It was £43m in the last financial year. Only three clubs had higher. Their wages-to-turnover ratio was 152 per cent meanwhile. That was the worst in the Championship, and it’s a ludicrously high bar. Obviously, that isn’t sustainable,” Williams said.

“I still think they’re going to be somewhere near the limit. They might have trimmed the wage bill significantly, but a 30 per cent cut isn’t going to get the wages-to-turnover ratio below 100 per cent. They’ve got amortisation of close to £9m too, which was again one of the division’s highest.

“My guess is that they will continue to trim the cost base. That probably means they’ll be shopping for bargains.“

West Brom miraculously avoided PSR breach in 2023/24 season

Competing at the top of the Championship requires teams to spend these days, especially when sides coming down from the Premier League have squads that are superior to the majority of the division.

That isn’t something the Baggies can do as they continue to tread the line when it comes to profit and sustainability – something Williams is surprised they managed to avoid falling foul of.

He added: “Given that the three-year PSR cap is £41.5m, you can see there isn’t that much breathing space there, even when you add back investment in the academy and infrastructure that Patel has sanctioned. It’s a minor miracle that they managed to avoid a breach in 2023-24.

“They’ve said in the accounts that they’re going to comply with PSR in 2024-25 and the number stack up there.”