Premier League: West Brom boss deserves more time

Four successive defeats have piled pressure on Alan Irvine

Michael Lintorn says that Alan Irvine is being judged too harshly, but might not get a chance to prove it...

Even if he hadn't emerged as the 2.447/5 favourite in Betfair's Next Premier League Manager To Leave Position market, few would have disputed claims that West Brom boss Alan Irvine's job is at risk.

The Scot arrived amidst protests, as he had never led in the Premier League before and was sacked from his two prior managerial roles at Preston and Sheffield Wednesday, with the club offering to refund the 100 season-ticket holders who expressed disenchantment at the appointment.

It has quickly become apparent that those who didn't seize that opportunity still feel empowered to ridicule the man in their dugout though.

Generic "you don't know what you're doing" chants against Arsenal were followed by a wider repertoire against West Ham, including "taxi for Irvine", "we want Brown (Ideye)" and "Alan Irvine, football genius", as well as deafening ironic cheers to greet the eventual introductions of Silvestre Varela and Ideye.

However, blaming Irvine for the Baggies' latest defeat was ludicrous given the extent to which they dominated. It wasn't a poor tactical approach or over-cautiousness that let West Ham depart The Hawthorns with three points to an away-end chorus of "we're going to win the league", it was dreadful finishing.

Irvine could hardly have gone for it more, ending the match with three forwards - Saido Berahino, Victor Anichebe and Ideye - and two almost exclusively attack-minded midfielders/wingers in Stephane Sessegnon and Varela, but his side were robbed by a team with incredible momentum.

Back to the campaign as a whole, West Brom's points haul of 13 from 14 games is two fewer than what Steve Clarke had gained at this stage last term. He went on to lose his next two fixtures and get axed with 15 from 16, and the consensus was that it was a needlessly rash decision.

Isn't it therefore unfair to suggest that a manager on course to at least equal Clarke's figures, having spent a year less in the role and faced the tougher task of integrating 11 summer signings imposed on him, over half of whom had zero Premier League experience, deserves to be dismissed?

Relegation odds of 3.55n/a place the Baggies sixth in the betting and indicate that they aren't perceived to be in immediate danger.

They are outside the bottom three and were in fact joint-ninth before being forced to meet in-form Newcastle, Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham in succession. In other words, this isn't the right moment to judge and discount Irvine. If they are in a worse position than this at Christmas, following a run of Hull (away), Aston Villa (home) and QPR (away), then the critics will have more ammunition.

The worry for the former Everton assistant and academy chief is that even if he is worthy of more time, West Brom have previous for being utterly ruthless which vindicates his billing as 2.447/5 next-to-go favourite.

You might think that having gone to the trouble of hiring him despite anticipating a backlash, Jeremy Peace and co will feel obliged to stand by that call, yet the hasty removals of Roberto Di Matteo and Clarke showed that they don't hang around when the fear of relegation intensifies.