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West Brom confirm Tottenham's Mason as head coach

Ryan Mason at a Tottenham fixtureGetty Images

Ryan Mason won one England cap as a player

Sami Mokbel
Senior football correspondent

West Brom have appointed Ryan Mason as their head coach.

The Championship side, who dismissed Tony Mowbray on 21 April, opened talks with Mason, 33, last week and he arrives at the Hawthorns on a three-year deal.

It brings a seven-year coaching career at Tottenham to an end for Mason, who progressed through the club's academy to also play 70 times for his boyhood team.

"This is a huge club with a fantastic infrastructure and an incredible fanbase, and I am excited about what we can achieve together," said Mason.

"Having spoken at length to the board and those at the club I am convinced that Albion is the perfect place for me to be and I can't wait to get started.

"I will bring with me a huge amount of enthusiasm, dedication and ambition, and look forward to a positive future together at such a fantastic club."

The former midfielder's contract at Spurs had been set to expire at the end of June.

Mason will now attempt to guide West Brom back into the Premier League for the first time since 2020-21, with the club finishing just outside the play-off spots last term.

Nigel Gibbs, who s from Reading, has been named Mason's assistant, with Sam Pooley coming in from Rangers as the club's first-team coach and head of performance.

Mason ed Tottenham's coaching team in April 2018, playing a key role in the club's academy before becoming interim first-team manager following the sacking of Jose Mourinho in 2021.

He had been part of Tottenham's senior set-up ever since, becoming acting head coach for a second time following the departure of Antonio Conte in 2023.

Mason remained a senior coach during Ange Postecoglou's reign.

Analysis - 'a brave appointment'

By BBC WM West Brom commentator Steve Hermon

It's a brave appointment. The Baggies have gone from 61-year-old Tony Mowbray - whose vast experience and success in the Championship was highlighted by sporting director Andrew Nestor as a reason for his return in January – to a man almost half his predecessor's age and who has never managed at this level before.

The 33-year-old does have 13 games as a caretaker boss in the Premier League on his CV though, and has worked his way up the coaching ranks at boyhood club Spurs.

Since 2018, the former midfielder has also sat under the learning tree of some of the world's best managers, including Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.

Many Albion fans were calling for a young head coach with fresh ideas, so he fits the bill on that front, but they will need to be patient with him.

Mason is unlikely to hit the ground running like his former colleague Chris Davies, who left north London for Birmingham City last summer and dominated League One with a superior squad to the level they were at.

Mason doesn't have that right now at the Hawthorns, so perhaps there will be less pressure on him, and more on Nestor and his recruitment team to give him the tools to succeed.

It's a work in progress but in hindsight the recruitment in the 2024-25 season had more misses than hits, so the decisions they make in this next window on which players to sign - and just as crucially which players to move on - will be just as important as the managerial decision they've just made.

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