James Morrison Prepares for His First Full Season at West Brom
James Morrison leans into his first full season in charge of West Bromwich Albion with the air of a man who has decided chaos can wait. The transfer window is still open, the market still twitchy, but his message is calm: the groundwork is done, the panic can stay at the door.
“We’re in a good place,” he told BBC Radio WM. Simple, but pointed. Six new signings through the door, a squad reshaped to his image, and a clear refusal to be dragged into the late-window frenzy that so often defines Championship summers.
Six in the door, no rush for a seventh
Morrison’s first full campaign as permanent boss starts in earnest on Saturday with a Carabao Cup trip to Rotherham, a competitive curtain-raiser before the Championship begins a week later. The temptation, for a relatively new manager, would be to demand more, faster. He’s pushing back against that instinct.
“I understand the market, I’ve understood myself – I’m not trying to get to want, want, want – I’m thinking about the bigger picture,” he said.
That line matters. It speaks to a coach trying to build something sustainable rather than chase a headline. West Brom have already “done some good business,” as he put it, and he sounds determined not to let impatience undo that work. The club will wait for the “right ones”, not just the available ones.
He knows what new faces can do for a fanbase starved of momentum. “Good players are always going to create that excitement. I want good players to arrive so they create that good feeling around the place and excitement for the fans.” The recruitment so far, in his eyes, has already nudged the mood in the right direction.
A joined‑up operation
Behind the scenes, Morrison has been working closely with head of football operations Ian Pearce, and that relationship is clearly central to his sense of control.
“It’s about working relationships, different opinions, identifying what type of players we need, so I’ve been really happy with the way we’ve been working,” he said.
No hint of tension, no veiled frustration about missed targets. Instead, a manager talking like someone who feels heard and backed. For a club that has known its share of turbulence in recent years, that kind of alignment between head coach and recruitment chief is no small thing.
Horn Myhre: a long-term target, not a late whim
The most recent arrival, Norway midfielder Felix Horn Myhre, underlines that point. This was not a panic buy or a name plucked from a late scouting report. Morrison made it clear this was a player he had personally tracked.
“I picked him out. I liked the way he moved, the way he was with the ball, the way he got forward,” he explained.
That’s the language of a manager who knows exactly what he wants in his midfield. Horn Myhre has been “on our radar for quite a long time,” Morrison said, and he highlighted the Norwegian’s experience in European and international football as a key part of the appeal. In his view, the 24-year-old arrives “well equipped” and ready to fit seamlessly into the group.
The picture Morrison paints is deliberate: a club with a plan, a manager with a clear eye for profile and personality, and a recruitment team working to a shared brief rather than a scattergun wishlist.
The season starts at Rotherham. The window stays open. The noise will grow. Morrison’s challenge now is to prove that this calm, patient summer can withstand the storm of a Championship campaign that rarely shows mercy.
