MOORE SACKING IS ILLOGICAL, RASH AND PLAIN WRONG

Say what you like about west Bromwich albion, they are equal opportunity employers.

they gave Darren Moore the chance to be their manager, and now they have given him the chance to be fired as unreasonably, rashly, wrongly and illogically, as any other coach, whether black or white.

west Brom are finding it hard to get out of the Championship. Join the club. So is everybody. Unlike the Premier League, the second tier does not respond to the usual rules of engagement. Big- budget teams like aston Villa can struggle, smallbudget teams like Sheffield United thrive.

Sizable parachute payments do not always have the imagined impact, either. Compared to the other clubs that were relegated last season, west Brom were holding their own under Moore. Swansea are 15th, Stoke 16th — both are nearer to the bottom three than the top three on points.

west Brom are fourth. It is unlikely they will contend automatic promotion but they are more than in the play- off mix. home form has been poor since the new year and west Brom last won a league match at the hawthorns on December 26 — but the away form has stood up, with three wins in their last four games.

So it is a battle. as it is for all promotion-chasing clubs. Leeds are up there but have lost to QPR, Norwich, Stoke and Nottingham Forest in 2019. Random results occur — such as Norwich’s defeat at Preston.

to sack Moore while on course for the play-offs suggests a board that was never truly behind his appointment in the first place. Moore took over in a crisis and turned the club around as a caretaker at the end of last season. he could not avoid relegation but he re-established spirit and respectability and thoroughly deserved the position full-time.

to jettison him now shows no appreciation of his contribution, or the subsequent challenge of losing key men such as Jonny Evans, Ben Foster and James McClean. were west Brom where Stoke or Swansea are now, while Moore would still have elicited sympathy, there may have been understanding of the decision.

But fourth? Fourth? It would suggest west Brom deserve everything they get — except the man who briefly restored their credibility.