Marked for Jed Wallace
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Josh Griffiths: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Bromwich Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jeon Jin-Woo, and the manager let it.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Stoke City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brayann Pereira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by David Grant to a room that had heard them before.
Squad23 Nov 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. West Bromwich Albion lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Jed Wallace is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sheffield Wednesday in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
An afternoon Jed Wallace will want back
Marked 5.22. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jed Wallace in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Bromwich Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at West Bromwich Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brayann Pereira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Something was said to Akeel Higgins and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Toby Collyer asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market16 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Josh Maja’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and West Bromwich Albion needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ousmane Diakité has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at West Bromwich Albion will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Toby Collyer has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at West Bromwich Albion that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.77, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jeon Jin-Woo gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brayann Pereira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Jed Wallace
A mark of 7.63, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” David Grant kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Brayann Pereira
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around West Bromwich Albion are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Alex Mowatt goes up and wins it — 7.66
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Chris Mepham and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match19 Sep 2026
Preston left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Toby Collyer gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 David Grant left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Aune Heggebø
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.