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West Brom have made a fantastic start to the Championship campaign, as they are yet to taste defeat and entered the first international window of the season with a 1-0 victory over Stoke City.
Baggies fans will have been frustrated to see some of their star players depart the club, as Torbjorn Heggem left to join Bologna for £10 million, and Tom Fellows also departed for the same fee, but to Championship rivals Southampton.
However, West Brom did replace these departures with some talented players in the shape of Krystian Bielik from Birmingham City at the heart of defence and then versatile option Samuel Iling-Junior on loan from Aston Villa.
While these signings were great replacements for the outgoings, West Brom did make a more important signing during the summer.
Ryan Mason was the key summer addition for West Brom
Obviously, Ryan Mason is not a summer signing; however, he is arguably the most important addition to the club, as they appointed him as their manager ahead of the new Championship season.
West Brom had experienced a tough few seasons following their relegation from the Premier League under Valerien Ismael and Steve Bruce.
While Carlos Corberan came in and steadied the ship and helped develop the squad once again, bringing a feeling of belief once again, Ryan Mason has built on this since the start of their campaign.
It has been an unbeaten start to the Championship season under Mason, and he has managed to find a way for his West Brom side to play and get results.
He has shown he is able to adapt his tactics and approach to get results, as witnessed in their style of play for their victory over Blackburn Rovers and then the contrasting manner in which they won the Wrexham fixture.
Antonio Conte believed in Ryan Mason as a coach
The Italian manager was sadly watching on as Ryan Mason suffered the horrific injury that ended Ryan Mason’s footballing career in 2017, as Hull City played Chelsea.
The pair were reunited at Tottenham Hotspur, with Antonio Conte bringing Mason into his first-team coaching staff while they were at Spurs, after he watched him taking sessions with the underage sides at the London club.
Conte was impressed by the strength of Mason’s character to recover from his injury at the time and so will have held a lot of respect for the West Brom manager, and he will surely be looking on proudly at the work he is doing in his first full-time managerial role.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, journalist Alasdair Gold has admitted Conte and his coaching staff have been mightily impressed with what they have seen from the 31-year-old: “Ryan Mason, the players really respect him. Don’t forget, he was a caretaker manager at the age of 29.
“His training sessions, I’m always told, are superb, really kind of tactically intelligent, challenging sessions.
“So from what I understand, the coaches and these are experienced Italian coaches, they’ve come in and been pretty impressed with Ryan Mason.”