Will Albion and Ramsay be perfect partners?

Could Eric Ramsay be Albion's match made in heaven?

Hiring managers is often quite similar to relationships.

After you have a bad one, you want the next one to be everything the last one wasn't.

For that reason, many Albion fans expected the Baggies' next hire following the dismissal of Ryan Mason to have the qualities they felt the previous incumbent had been sadly lacking.

Therefore, most expected Mason's replacement to be older, with Championship experience.

However, Andrew Nestor appears not to have allowed one bad relationship to shake his belief in what he's looking for.

Instead, he seems to have stuck to his guns, with 33-year-old Ramsay heavily tipped to be the next Baggies boss.

Rather than throw his entire philosophy out the window, it appears Nestor has subtly tweaked his requirements to resolve the deficiencies in Mason's managerial ability.

First, experience.

Despite being some eight months Mason's junior, Ramsay is far more experienced in coaching and management.

He was appointed Minnesota United manager in 2024 and has led the club to their best-ever season.

Prior to taking that job, he had a varied coaching career where he spent a decade learning at Swansea, Shrewsbury, Chelsea and Manchester United before heading across the Atlantic.

Second, there's his apprenticeship (if it's not incredibly disrespectful to call his time at Minnesota that).

Mason's only prior managerial experience was 13 games as Tottenham Hotspur's caretaker boss across two stints.

On neither occasion was he left much room for experimentation as he was thrust into big game after big game.

In his first spell, his second match was a cup final, while the second time around, his baptism of fire was Manchester United at home, followed by Liverpool away.

The chances are Mason didn't truly learn who he was (or wasn't) as a manager until he took the Albion hotseat.

Ramsay is quite different.

He told BBC Sport in February that he chose to go to the MLS rather than the Championship because "I wanted an experience that was going to give me the best chance to develop, the opportunity to make some mistakes and manage something that feels big".

Ramsay has been plotting his career for almost two decades, after saying publicly he found his coaching voice at around 14 or 15.

Most managers choose the role because it's the next best thing to playing once their body, or ability, has called time on a career on the pitch.

Ramsay is that rare entity, somebody who chose being a coach over being a player after he turned down a professional contract to study at university.

So, Eric Ramsay, the Championship manager, has been a long time in the making.

Has he found his perfect partner in West Bromwich Albion?

Only time will tell.