Former West Bromwich Albion manager Gary Megson has claimed that relegation "probably is inevitable" for the Premier League's basement side.
The Baggies have lost their last seven matches in the top flight, and Alan Pardew's side currently sit 10 points adrift of safety in the league standings.
Megson, who managed West Brom in the early 2000s and was caretaker between the tenures of Tony Pulis and Pardew, believes that the players are sending out messages of having all but given up.
"It does [pain me]," Megson told the Birmingham Mail. "[Relegation] probably is inevitable now, but it wasn't inevitable three or four games ago and yet they were talking like that, they're sending out all the signals and I think it's really poor.
"Every signal is, we're down and we'll try and sort it out for next season, and it's not as easy as that. You're not down until you just can't get the amount of points. Sometimes you just get a catalyst, you win one game and another game goes in your favour and all of a sudden everything changes a little bit."
West Brom realistically need to win a minimum of five of their remaining seven matches in order to have a chance of avoiding relegation to the Championship.
