Though results have picked up following Alan Pardew's dismissal by West Brom, the club still look certainties for relegation. With two games to play, they're five points from safety. Fellow strugglers Swansea and Southampton also have a game in hand.
Since Pardew departed at the start of April, the club is undefeated, picking up eight points. That run has included impressive wins against Manchester United and Newcastle and a comeback draw at home to Liverpool.
Still, players will undoubtedly be considering their futures. James McClean feels that though fans may view players who leave a relegated club as traitors, there is more to the story.
"Everyone wants to play Premier League football, so I do think there will obviously be a lot of people looking at their next move or their future come the summer if the inevitable happens and we do go down," McClean told West Midlands paper the Express And Star in the build-up the the weekend's game against Newcastle.
The fans just see it as if you do go down and players leave then you're a snake, or you've taken the club for a ride and this and that.
But we've got families as well, we need to look after them. We've also got a career to look after as well, we want to be the best we can be. You have to look after yourself first and foremost.
Darren Moore took temporary charge of the club following Pardew's departure. Moore has a long association with West Brom. He was a player at the Hawthorns for five years in the early to mid-2000. In December, he was promoted to first team coach after having previously worked with the under-18s and under-23s.
McClean said that Moore has given his charges a confidence boost and reminded them that they're good players.
"Change of manager for starters, not to dig at Alan [Pardew]," replied McClean when asked what were the reasons for the team's recent upturn in results.
Though McClean said he had not intended his comments to be a dig at Pardew, they certainly read as an indictment of the ex-manager's time in charge.
"Since the big man's come in – I said it after the United game – look on the pitch now we know what we're doing.
"People from the outside will say you're professional footballers, you should know what you're doing anyway.
"We were told to go out and play but we didn't really work on how we play that way.
"We were told to play with more freedom, but you've got a group of players who, under our previous manager Tony, were more defensive and a lot more drilled.
"We were told to go out and play a different way without really working on that."
