No guarantee that Fireman Samwill come to the rescue this time

WEST BROM have gone full circle in three years – from functional to fantasy football and back to pragmatism again.

But as Sam Allardyce takes on his latest project as a firefighter, and puts his record of never being relegated on the line, you have to wonder if this time he has picked out the dud bulb in the fairy lights on his Christmas tree.

First of all, I have to say I feel desperately sorry for Slaven Bilic.

He won promotion at the first time of asking and, although seven points from 13 games is not a great return, the Baggies are not miles adrift of the dotted line.

When you analyse their performances this season, their defeat at Manchester United was a cruel result, they were undone by Harry

Kane only at the last gasp against Tottenham and, on Tuesday night, Bilic’s players fought for their lives to get a point at Manchester City.

Normally, when a tide is going out on the manager, there are telltale signs that the players have lost belief in what they are being asked to do. But after just 546 days in charge, I watched that team put their bodies on the line for their manager at the Etihad. He has been harshly treated.

Having said that,

I wish

Allardyce

all the best at the Hawthorns. I’ve never jumped on the critics’ bandwagon to slate the way his teams play because his record speaks for itself. Down the years he has saved Bolton, West Ham, Sunderland and Palace from relegation – and you could argue he did the same for Everton, struggling when he arrived in 2017.

In his 512 matches as a Premier League manager, Allardyce (above) has won 174 and lost 200 for a 34 per cent win ratio.

If he applies the same ratios to West Brom’s remaining 25 games, they will finish on around 37 points – which would probably be enough to keep them up.

And while managerial change can be unsettling, if the players buy into Big Sam’s methods from the word go, Bilic will be forgotten after one game: That’s the cruel nature of football. The king is dead, long live the king.

But it is strange that, as recently as November 2017, West Brom sacked Tony Pulis – another man unfairly derided for his methods, even though he has never been relegated in 28 years as a manager – and turned to Alan Pardew, Darren Moore and Bilic for a more expansive approach.

Three years later, the owners have squared the circle and gone back to pragmatism as their preferred option.

And although Allardyce is taking charge of a record eighth Premier League club, there is absolutely no guarantee of a happy ending to this changing of the guard at the Hawthorns.

I watched that team put their bodies on the line for Bilic at the Etihad.. he’s been harshly treated