[overseas baggie]

I heard that comment that Pulis has lost the dressing room as well. Makes you wonder if the players are up to their old tricks again.

If that's true then its the players who need shipping out.    Managers need players who they can trust, and we've been on a perpetual circle of new managers inheriting someone else's team.

Can anyone remember when an Albion manager last had a chance to properly build his own team?   I'm struggling on that one.

[graka]

Well poco is deemed the second best left back in Belgium yet the fourth best left back in west brom?? Gamboa hasn't had a look in under Irvine or pulis so hard to judge but he doesn't do himself any favours with some selections and substitutions. Too negative for me hopefully he leaves in the summer after he fails to keep us up

[Atomic]

The players at the club are a bigger problem than manager / chairman / anyone. They have too much power, quite clearly and that cannot ever be healthy. Who cares what they like / want. Get rid of them their voices are too loud and their actions ... via results, far too small. The arrogance of them is quite laughable from the outside, their ability qualifies them for no say in anything whatsoever.

If EVER there was a club that needs a clear out it's West Bromwich Albion ......... NOW!

[overseas baggie]

The players at the club are a bigger problem than manager / chairman / anyone. They have too much power, quite clearly and that cannot ever be healthy. Who cares what they like / want. Get rid of them their voices are too loud and their actions ... via results, far too small. The arrogance of them is quite laughable from the outside, their ability qualifies them for no say in anything whatsoever.

If EVER there was a club that needs a clear out it's West Bromwich Albion ......... NOW!

Am totally with you on that.   The players are the one common denominator

Massive clearout needed next month whether we stay up or go down

[pete]

Am totally with you on that.   The players are the one common denominator

Massive clearout needed next month whether we stay up or go down

You stated earlier that the majority of players arent the same ones!  I dont get your argument unless you mean a certain core of players which I stated earlier?

Which players are the ones that are "meant" to be causing issues in the dressing room?

No player is bigger than the club which I agree but if the players are revolting then surely weve been buying or gotten rid of the wrong players. Look at Burnley, they would all run through a brick wall for their manager which is shown on the pitch whereas ours wouldnt run to the fkn half way line dressed as Sir Geoff FFS!

[overseas baggie]

You stated earlier that the majority of players arent the same ones!  I dont get your argument unless you mean a certain core of players which I stated earlier?

Which players are the ones that are "meant" to be causing issues in the dressing room?

No player is bigger than the club which I agree but if the players are revolting then surely weve been buying or gotten rid of the wrong players. Look at Burnley, they would all run through a brick wall for their manager which is shown on the pitch whereas ours wouldnt run to the fkn half way line dressed as Sir Geoff FFS!

The common denominators seem to be Foster, Olssen, Mulumbu, Yacob, Brunt, Morrison, McAuley....

[Atomic]

The common denominators seem to be Foster, Olssen, Mulumbu, Yacob, Brunt, Morrison, McAuley....

I couldn't name all but Foster, Morrison and Brunt certainly.

[overseas baggie]

I couldn't name all but Foster, Morrison and Brunt certainly.

Then get rid.

[stokelad84]

It could take 2 or 3 windows to get rid of everybody.

I would bet Mulumbu, McAuley and Olssen would be out of the door in the summer. Nobody will take Foster with him being injured. Then there's Brunt and Morrison who they will need to find a buyer for. They're good players so bottom half clubs would be interested. But you can't force them out of the club with them sitting on contracts.

[ronny boy]

TP needs to grow a pair quickly and bring some pace into the side for the remaining games, or we will be sweating it out on the last day of the season. 

Carry on with those plodders on the pitch yesterday and we are in trouble. 

[OldburyWBA]

Are you tony pull is' agent?

Great comment, adds a lot to the topic thanks for that

[overseas baggie]

TP needs to grow a pair quickly and bring some pace into the side for the remaining games, or we will be sweating it out on the last day of the season. 

Carry on with those plodders on the pitch yesterday and we are in trouble.

What pace do you suggest we unearth?

[overseas baggie]

It could take 2 or 3 windows to get rid of everybody.

I would bet Mulumbu, McAuley and Olssen would be out of the door in the summer. Nobody will take Foster with him being injured. Then there's Brunt and Morrison who they will need to find a buyer for. They're good players so bottom half clubs would be interested. But you can't force them out of the club with them sitting on contracts.

Then pay them off.  Small price to pay to get tie of troublemakers.   Better value from doing that than spending crazy sums on Anichebe and Ideye.  We'd get £5m combined for Morrison and Brunt.

[OldburyWBA]

Pulis has done to us fans exactly what AI did. We now have the Pulis apologists, in place of the AI apologists. We seem now to have fans on here who won't hear a bad word about Pulis, when previously we had the AI defenders.
Pulis is more limited than I thought. Ultra negative
, appalling tactics and substitutions, and I want him gone. And don't apologise for that one iota.
And he would do EXACTLY the same thing with a new influx of players.
Ya Ya, I'm waiting for the "oh no, he'll do this and he'll buy that...",
Frigging rubbish. The guy needs to go before we're totally ruined as a club

Pulis is not perfect and I for one am not a Pulis apologist. Out of the options around he was the best. I didn't actually want him, I wanted a strong character like him and the reasons why are becoming more and more evident with each game.

Player power put an end to Mel before he had a chance to start, they had it cushy under Irvine and now they seem unhappy with Pulis given their lack of interest on the pitch. How many more times do we need to see players ambling over to take a throw in or conrer when we're losing at home, barely breaking sweat to take a set piece while the clocks counting down ?

Difference is this time the players will be the ones moving on and Pulis will be here rebuilding the squad. How he does that I have no idea, could be the biggest bag of pooh we have seen in years but it will be full of players prepared to get dirty and win challenges without worrying about getting hurt themselves.

He has to work with what he has and I would say the reason he is not picking others like Pocognoli, Gamboa, Davidson etc is because he doesn't trust them in the run in. Personally I would have Pocognoli in without any hesistation. He said when he came this would be his toughest task, many thought he was covering his back, maybe he was being honest.

I think his biggest fault so far was when he said a few weeks ago big changes were needed to this squad. To me if I was a player that would inspire me to put performances in to try and attract a new club for next season but seems to have had opposite effect on some.

How about we get through the season and then judge next season when it starts ?

[Standaman]

Anyone who cares to look at any of my posts will know I am not Pulis's biggest fan, I don't like his football and I am under no illusion that it will change with the likely infusion of new players this summer.

However in all fairness to him as with Irvine, Mel and to some extent Clarke  managers need time to work with players and shape the squad (if that makes me an apologist then fine) . However my criticism of all those gentlemen is they have simply tried to shoehorn the squad which they have largely inherited into a fixed formation which is coincidently 4-4-2 rather than looking at the squad's strengths and weaknesses and figuring out how best to deploy the players they have got, in order to win games of football.

When you overlay the strange recruitment and selection decisions that Pulis has made you are left with team that is in the same tactical muddle as it was when Clarke left. That is the managers fault because it does not have to be like that.

In no way does that excuse the players for their individual performances. Regardless of tactics or formations every manager has an absolute right to expect his team to do the basics irrespective of where they playing. During too much of the last two games the players have under performed, as was the case under Irvine, Mel and Clarke all of whom have lost their jobs as a consequence.

Until yesterday I was of the opinion despite my personal reservations about Pulis we desperately needed some consistency and a couple of summers worth of recruiting to a clear plan and if that was Pulisball well so be it. Yesterday started to sow some serious seeds of doubt I really do worry as to what the squad will look like by the time Pulis has finished with it and although the next manager is bound to be more progressive  in outlook (could there be a more negative coach) will the squad they inherit be able to do anything else other than grind out 1:0 wins?

I fear that we are in danger of joining Sunderland in a perpetual fight against relegation constantly chopping and changing managers turning over players but never getting it right. It is dispiriting for fans and ultimately unless we get relegated we will never have the clear out and be stripped down to the basics so we can rebuild properly and get coach tactics and players aligned.   

[ronny boy]

What pace do you suggest we unearth?

Do you really need me to spell it out for you? We don't have that many options but we do have a couple. Yesterday we were as pedestrian a side that you'll see, so the introduction of McManaman would of helped. In upcoming games why not pick Gamboa or Poc? That's why I said TP needs to grow a pair and stop picking slow cumbersome defenders.. Its not like its working is it.

[overseas baggie]

Do you really need me to spell it out for you? We don't have that many options but we do have a couple. Yesterday we were as pedestrian a side that you'll see, so the introduction of McManaman would of helped. In upcoming games why not pick Gamboa or Poc? That's why I said TP needs to grow a pair and stop picking slow cumbersome defenders.. Its not like its working is it.

I agree with Poc.

I don't think McManaman would gave been anywhere near match fit to play  a full game of yesterday's importance.

Gamboa?  No idea.  I haven't seen him play since Costa Rica.  Neither Irvine nor Pulis can rate him based on what they see in training.

Letting Varela go was the big mistake

[Hong Kong Phooey]

Why will none of this change with a new influx of players?   You're judging Pulis on what he's able to do with this squad, which is minimal.

Big slow giants at the back can be replaced with big quick giants. 

Hanging on for 1-0 wins?  Right at this moment I'd take that as we aren't managing it.

He can only rearrange the deckchairs at present, although I would like to see Pocognoli and more of Sess, but there's clearly a wider issue with Pocognoli and Sess has done very little when he's had the chance lately, I think mainly because of the shape that we are forced to play through lack of width and pace.

BRILLIANT - the only thing that has amused me in what has been a woeful two weeks 

[beechyboy90]

Pulis ruined Astle day with negative tactics. Brining on Olson to defend a 2-1 lead against bottom of the league who are fighting for their lives was disgraceful.

We have the same problems we had under Irvine we lack pace imagination creativity this stems from playing 4 central midfield players. For a while dying his honeymoon period his make shift back 4 looked reasonably solid at home but now it looks farcical.

Pulis not trusting the foreign players is clawing relegation out of a position of survival. We are negative at home and even more negative away. I believe we blew chances of poińs at Burnley Sunderland and villa because of this negativity. We lost the cup game to them also and have wasted our 2 "winnable" home games.

I agree the players are at fault as well for lack of effort, but they don't need to try to guarantee they are in the team! Brunt having a bad game at left back won't see poco come back I to the team (more likely see lescott left back and Olsson come Into centre back) he only uses his 11 and his 3 subs of Olsson sick vic and sessi.

I thought Pulis was the better appointment out of him and Sherwood but his management style and stubbornness leaves me cold. I can't see another win this season. And yes there needs to be a clear out but for me this includes the recruitment staff and all the management team also. Pulis should have been given to the end of the season no more 

[overseas baggie]

BRILLIANT - the only thing that has amused me in what has been a woeful two weeks 

And I've seen deckchairs with more mobility and more fight!

[costa blanca baggie]

And I've seen deckchairs with more mobility and more fight!

...and I can remember when they had blue and white stripes.

[Adder]

His PL record speaks for itself, but I find it terribly depressing that lots of fans have made up their own minds without giving him a proper chance.  We will not get a better manager able to bring much needed stability to this club.


I myself quite like him, I think we've got to grin and bare it this season. His tactics are confusing though, as he has teased us with some great football, then when you get the smile back on your face we revert back to hoof ball. Let's face it Pulis will divide opinion in the short term simply down to his time at Stoke(that's not a dig stokelad84). We became a joke to them and his team and him were hated by a portion of the Albion fans. If he fixes the problems at the club his relationship with the fans will sort itself out, that's the nature of football and supporters.

It should be acceptable to criticise him over certain things though .... doesn't necessarily mean we've given up on him or want him out.

[sconesy]

The players at the club are a bigger problem than manager / chairman / anyone. They have too much power, quite clearly and that cannot ever be healthy. Who cares what they like / want. Get rid of them their voices are too loud and their actions ... via results, far too small. The arrogance of them is quite laughable from the outside, their ability qualifies them for no say in anything whatsoever.

If EVER there was a club that needs a clear out it's West Bromwich Albion ......... NOW!

Completely agree fella - however by Peace's own admission, he's taken his eye of the ball over the last few years regarding player management, scouting etc. IMO our scouting system is pathetic and needs a complete overhaul - we have to much dead wood, happy to to take all the money they can get from the club.........our 'Chief Scout ' (Mervyn Day) has allegedly not visited the Hawthorns/training ground for over 7 months!! Either he is so busy working unearth gems, or he's being paid 150K-200K pa? and completely 'blagging' us?! - I suppose the fruits of his labour will become apparent in due course. We all know what we need - pace amongst other things! Surely he'll have 3-4 (relatively unknown) gems lined up or he just ain't worth his salary in any way shape or form.

I expect Pulis to completely overhaul the team and backroom staff in the close season - we need to go back to basics and get that right before being arrogant enough to carry a load of mercenaries.

[Baggies54]

Can't blame a player for bring crocked - everyone can pick up a foot injury. 

Maybe we can't attribute any winning of games directly to McManaman, but his presence gave us more width and so changed our shape.

With regard to McManaman why do you stray from the point I was making, which was about the type of player Pulis would be buying if Mr Peace releases funds to him.

[RedHead_Baggie]

I've got nothing against the making yourself hard to beat approach in certain games but why do we have to play like this every single game?

If we were playing against top class teams every week then fair enough but that's not the case.

Two away games now against a very in form Palace (who are beatable) and a desperately poor Newcastle who are already on the beach.  Lets have none of the park the bus mentality or trying to remain in the game for 80 minutes before having a go.  Lets try to win a game from the outset.

Everyone else manages it so why have we got to be different?