Albion complete redemption arc - what's next?

It allowed Morrison to go with a more robust and, at times, narrower midfield in which Isaac Price enjoyed his own redemption arc playing in his (in my opinion) best position off the left, and it allowed Albion to go two up top, with more defence-minded midfielders behind them.

A front two simply isn't that fashionable anymore, and it was something Mason had avoided as he didn't seem to fancy any of his strikers bar one.

Aune Heggebo had started Ryan Mason's last 11 league games in charge and only failed to start twice under Eric Ramsay.

Morrison, however, decided to share the load much more up front, rotating three different strikers in Heggebo, Maja and Dike.

Maja had been anonymous under the previous two bosses, scoring just one league goal all season, but he also had been shown very little faith, making just six league starts before Morrison was put in charge.

Suddenly trusted under the interim boss, he was a player transformed, starting seven matches and scoring three goals in Albion's last nine games.

Similar was true of Daryl Dike.

Ryan Mason had granted him just 31 minutes of league football in five months.

Morrison started him in three of Albion's last five games...he duly scored twice.

In all honesty, the list could go on.

Ousmane Diakite didn't miss a minute of Albion's last eight league games, racking up man-of-the-match awards on a near-weekly basis. He'd been derided by much of the fanbase for much of the season prior to that.

Nat Phillips and George Campbell formed a rock-solid partnership, with the former having been culpable for many defensive errors earlier in the campaign and the latter having been misguidedly used at right back for much of the season.

He was replaced at right back by Danny Imray, whose loan looked like it was over before it started when he was substituted after 45 minutes on debut at Portsmouth. He went on to be one of Albion's most important players in the closing weeks of the season.

In the end, it was a season where many redeemed themselves both on the pitch and off it.

Our ownership recovered from some incredibly bad football decisions to (finally) appoint the right man and expertly guide us through an incredibly challenging final few weeks.

However, after the redemption arc needs to come the next chapter, and we must hope that our excellent finish to the season (final day aside) gives us a platform to build upon.

James Morrison said after the final day defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, "In defeat you learn a lot, and I've learned a lot today."

That's a humble and reflective approach which the club should take to the 2025-26 season.

Many mistakes were made, and that presents an opportunity to learn from them and come back stronger.

Because nobody connected to West Bromwich Albion wants history to repeat itself.

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