West Bromwich Albion Chairman Shilen Patel provides supporters with an in-depth update as the club continues to prepare for the 2026/27 Sky Bet Championship campaign.
Dear Albion fans,
As I reflect on the 2025/26 campaign, I likely share the same feeling as many of you: I am grateful for the opportunity to turn the page and excited for our fresh start. Last season was challenging and humbling, and I must begin here: I sincerely apologise to our supporters and everyone within and around the club for the extremely disappointing runs of form and other setbacks throughout what became a historically poor season. West Bromwich Albion’s history, potential, and support set a clear standard and as Chairman I am ultimately responsible for meeting it. Last season, we fell far short, and I take full responsibility for that. I am also responsible for us doing much better in the future. In the end, we collectively pulled ourselves back from the worst of possibilities by showing our very best. It truly took every scrap of energy on the pitch and in the stands that we could muster, powered by belief and togetherness around the club and behind the scenes. Together, we changed the story of the season into one of commitment, resilience, and unity and showed once again that this club can never be counted out and that we will face the future together.
Amid the challenges and the ultimate urgency of the season, we sought to nurture daily progress towards greater long-term success and organisational growth. With the 25/26 season settled, our focus is on attacking the future with more clarity, stronger foundations, and a renewed sense of excitement.
Football
Last season ended with exhilarating highs that narrowly overcame deep lows, driving home how elusive consistency can be in the Championship and the importance of harnessing it. James Morrison, his staff, and our sporting leadership deserve enormous credit for the calmness they showed to lead the team to critical results and even weather a late points deduction. Mozza is already woven into the fabric of this club, and he approaches this role with a clear understanding of what it means to Baggies everywhere. He has been a part of delivering that standard at the Albion for the majority of his professional life and mirrors the traits we value in our long-serving and recently arrived leaders: adept, driven, team-first, humble, honest, accountable, and positive. Along with his freshly confirmed staff, his goal will be to sustain the performance levels achieved at the end of last season.
Further up the organisation, Dominic Price joined us from Maccabi Tel-Aviv in February as Technical Director. Dominic and Director of Football Operations Ian Pearce also share those traits mentioned above and it has enabled a collaborative and productive dynamic atop our sporting organisation that strengthened us in-season and for the future. Like a good defensive or strike partnership, success is built on complementary strengths and clear roles, but also a willingness to cover and adapt as circumstances demand. Ian continues to lead recruitment and scouting as well as overseeing our first team coaches and players, while Dom leads on analysis, medical, academy, and is the champion of the game model, in addition to ensuring all our systems & processes support it and our team building strategy. Collectively they and their teams, including distinguished leaders like Tony Strudwick and Richard Stevens, cover success match to match and season to season for our men, women, and youth. I am encouraged by how all the groups and individuals responsible for success on the pitch are working together in the new structure off it.
I appreciate that mentions of our game model and our use of data have drawn critical attention due to struggles on the pitch, but we will always push to observe and integrate best practices with the patience and humility to learn and improve as we go. The most successful clubs worldwide use objective, quantifiable data as part of a decision-making framework that give it context and focus. Our use of data to evaluate ourselves, our competition, and potential recruits is always evolving along with our broader approach. No club gets everything right, but in our mission to harness every possible advantage we are committed to continuously mining the results of all our efforts, research, and curiosity for clues to future success.
Our core strategy remains the same as when I arrived. We aim to build a squad of dynamic, hard-working, and well-coached players with an emphasis on talent we believe will grow in their time with us. I predict we will again see spending records broken across football this summer. I also predict that in the Championship we will once again see examples of conscientious team building prevailing over big spending. When we look at our most successful recruitment, there are clear commonalities and they have nothing to do with how much we spent to bring the player here. We will continue to emphasise a prudent approach to team building, with a focus on traits that fit our game model and players ready to play for the shirt. It is encouraging to begin the window with exciting additions like Barney Stewart and Jimmy-Jay Morgan, who have the mental and physical makeup to help us compete and win for seasons to come. They won’t be the last of the new arrivals.
Time and continuity are as important to squad building as scouting and development, and so our work this summer will stand out as much for its focus on retention as on accumulation. Moves such as the return of Max O’Leary and Matt Gill and extending the contracts of Callum Styles and Ousmane Diakite are double wins, keeping proven quality with the club and pre-empting a future need. We had a lot of positives to build on late last season, and we believe continuity on the pitch and the touchline will help us pick up where we left off. As of the release of this letter, we will only have two senior player contracts expiring next summer, a vast difference from the churn required in this and prior summers.
Our women’s team continues to be an area of growth and focus and I would like to praise Siobhan Hodgetts-Still, her staff and players for their sixth-place finish. This latest progress also took place in a new home: the Alexander Stadium. While we have a long way to go to fill the stands there – I do encourage everyone to see our women play this coming season – the story is about more than the scale of the venue. The facilities, location, and pre-and-post-match experience are significantly better for the players and add to the appeal of playing for the club. We must continue our upward trajectory and lean into this moment in women’s sport, where interest and possibilities seem to be expanding exponentially. When our opportunity to move up the pyramid comes, we are putting in the work now to ensure that infrastructure, talent, and coaching can support that opportunity and what comes after. I would also like to congratulate Shev and her partner on the announcement of their pregnancy and look forward to welcoming a new member to the Albion family. I also welcome Martyn Irvine to the club as our Interim Head Coach. Martyn’s significant experience in the game will ensure we are in safe hands while Shev is able to take the time to focus on her family.
Finance
Our inherited Profitability and Sustainability (P&S) challenges have been exhaustively discussed and analysed over the last two-plus years, and nobody is happier than me to finally put that conversation in the past. We faced the P&S chasm head on, selling players and resetting the wage bill while also rebuilding the men’s first-team squad for long-term success. Though that challenge ended in a frustrating two-point deduction, we now begin a new phase where we can be guided by our own budget and sensibilities rather than circumstance and external pressures.
I can understand and identify with the frustration and disappointment of supporters regarding many aspects of the sanctions and the process leading to it. I remain proud of the way the whole club did what needed to be done to eliminate a breach initially projected to be in the tens of millions, and I strongly feel that the emphasis we placed on compliance and open dialogue with the CFRU was exemplary. However we may feel about the outcome, we put ourselves in a position where the deduction did not rewrite our season and an appeal would not change our future. The club benefits when we can spend money on players and infrastructure instead of lawyers and hearings, and so we chose to put our full focus on the future.
On May 15, there was a vote confirming what we had long expected, switching the Championship to new Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) rules around squad spending. This is a change we have been preparing for since before the 24/25 season, and we are comfortable that we can execute our plan within the new regulations.
I would also like to recognise the outstanding work of The Albion Foundation, whose impact goes far beyond football. I was sorry to see its good name caught up in the reporting around our P&S charge. The Foundation, its Director Rob Lake, its board, staff, and volunteers, who all give so much to it deserved better. The Albion Foundation is a source of great pride for me and for Baggies everywhere and a study in how a football club can lift its community. Absolutely nothing about how we support it will diminish in the wake of the ruling. The Foundation has long been there for the people of Sandwell and the Black Country, and is as much a fixture in this part of the country as the club itself.
Off the pitch
The inescapable storylines of our season did obscure some very important and very positive steps we made to strengthen our organisation outside the white lines. After the 24/25 season, we made a decision to complement the dedication, experience, and loyalty of our existing team with strong leaders in specific areas who fit our culture while bringing fresh perspectives and their unique backgrounds. Our recruitment focused on key additions in commercial, sporting, finance, and legal.
The right people take time to find and secure, and even as the season entered its deepest challenges, we welcomed impressive, enthusiastic individuals who were looking beyond the moment at the bright future this club has. While we worked to supplement from outside of the club, the people within it have long proven their commitment and quality through the highs and lows. Our changes also sought to put them in positions of greater impact. We believe we have assembled a group of people who can not only be great at what they do but also be great representatives of what the Albion is about.
Consequently, we have restructured the executive leadership team, which will be led by Executive Director Mark Miles. Mark will be supported by Ian Skidmore, who has been appointed Chief of Staff & Communications Officer. Additionally, Sam Jeffery arrived from Norwich City as Chief Business Officer in March, while John Pelling, who played a pivotal role in guiding the club through its P&S challenges, joined us last season as Senior Director of Football Finance. Richard Parnell has also been appointed Chief Legal & Governance Officer, having previously served Sunderland and Lincoln City. They have joined an incredibly impressive and dedicated group which now represents more than 200 years’ experience in professional football.
Executive Leadership Team
Executive Director – Mark Miles
Chief of Staff & Communications Officer – Ian Skidmore
Chief Business Officer – Sam Jeffery
Chief Legal & Governance Officer – Richard Parnell
Senior Director of Football Finance – John Pelling
Director of Human Resources – Sam Foxall
Club Secretary – Sarah McGenn
Director of Operations and SHE (Safety, Health and Environment) - Chris Harris
Director of Events, Experience & Technology – Tomasz Chadwick
Director of Football Operations – Ian Pearce
Technical Director – Dominic Price
Director, The Albion Foundation – Rob Lake
Mark’s return as Executive Director helped stabilise us during a difficult period and I am confident his leadership and experience will be of great benefit as we move forward. The appointment of Jason Roberts as a Non-Executive Director also ensures we have greater football experience in the boardroom.
Commercial growth & fan experience
Under Sam Jeffery, we are innovating our commercial strategy to grow revenue and reinvest in the club, from partnerships, retail and matchday direct to the on-pitch product. Sam brings deep experience in developing international partnerships as well, an area we are keen to expand. Whilst our current agreements are strong when measured against others, our growth will come from widening who we work with driven by a new tiered partnership model that opens the door to sectors we haven't traditionally tapped, like technology, financial services, health and wellness, and others. A stronger commercial operation directly supports our football ambitions, especially as we venture into a world regulated by SCR, with focus on the projects that can deliver real uplift over the next 12 to 24 months.
Improving the matchday experience for all is a major priority for us, and we've created a new role to address that. Tomasz Chadwick, who previously did a superb job leading our commercial efforts, has been appointed into a newly created position as Director of Events, Experience & Technology. Tom has mapped out every part of the matchday, from ticket purchase to the journey home, and is working through how we can look to improve each step. For 2026/27, in the near term, you will see a dedicated Fan Experience Manager, Hawthorns Helpers around the ground on matchdays, stronger food and beverage options offered on the concourses, and other enhancements to matchdays. We are also very happy to officially announce that we are replacing the PA system, which I know is something many of you have wanted us to put right for quite a while. These improvements build on a busy past twelve months already, where we have introduced upgrades from safe standing and the stadium repaint to the East Stand post-match bar.
Looking forward together
Finally, to every supporter who stood with us last season home and away, in the best moments and the very worst – thank you. Your loyalty is the foundation everything around the Albion is built on. I will never claim to understand the Albion in the way that so many of you do, and I will never catch up to the years and generations that you and your loved ones have put into this club. However, I have seen enough and felt enough to clearly understand what it means and what we can be. In good times and in hard times, we are determined to be a team and a club that you can be proud of.
Shilen Patel
Chairman
West Bromwich Albion FC
