1

West Bromwich Albion FC / Player insurance

« on: March 05, 2024, 08:40:44 PM »

Hi all,

Does anyone have any insight into how player insurance works in practice?  We’ve had our more than fair share of injuries this year.  I assume we aren’t insured for minor knocks that keep players out for a few weeks.  If we did that, the premiums would be enormous.  But what are we insured for?  If a player is out all season?  If a player never plays again?

2

West Bromwich Albion FC / Fax machine

« on: August 31, 2023, 11:19:51 AM »

If anyone from the club is reading this, now might be a good time to check that the fax machine is plugged in and has plenty of ink and paper.  Let’s not have the same pantomime as last year…

3

West Bromwich Albion FC / Our scouting

« on: May 12, 2023, 10:15:31 AM »

Hi all,

Does anyone know what scouting network we now have?  I’m thinking both the formal full-time scouts and also part timers dotted around the country/ Europe/ world?   We used to be so good at finding the Gera/ Odemwingie/ Koren types from abroad and the Hughes types from non league.   Is that network still out there?

4

West Bromwich Albion FC / Our last Tier 3 relegation squad…

« on: October 24, 2022, 04:56:54 PM »

I keep thinking “we’re too good to go down” and a new manager and a return of Dike and Ajayi will get us back to at least mid table.  It got me thinking that the last Albion team to go into the third tier must have been much worse.   Looking back, this was our team.  I’ve tried to base it on appearances and not make changes to prove my point. I didn’t bring in people such as Paul Williams just to demonstrate how bad some of our options were! In that basis it looks roughly like this:

Naylor

Harbey
Burgess
Raven/ Ehiogu
Hodson

Shakespeare
Bradley
Robson
Hackett

Bannister
Goodman

Surely our current midfield has to be better than this??  I’d take Naylor and Ehiogu but who else is an upgrade on what we have.   Goodman had talent but a Grant-like ability to go missing.

What do others think?   If this is the standard that gets relegated, are we better than that?

5

West Bromwich Albion FC / Ok, so how would you play…?

« on: October 02, 2022, 06:45:27 PM »

We can all agree that things aren’t great and that Bruce’s plans and systems just aren’t working at all.   If you were to take over as manager tomorrow, what would the next team sheet be?  In fairness to Bruce, we can only look at realistic teams and not imagine that we can miracle players out of injury, retirement or other clubs.   So no point going with:

Foster

TGH
O’Shea
Ajayi
(New left back)

Yokuslu
Molumby

Wallace
Swift
Diangana

Dike

That team isn’t available to Bruce so it’s not relevant.  A new manager couldn’t pick it next week.

When I looked at who I’d pick, I ended up with:

Button (least bad from two poor choices)

TGH (but hasn’t been great this year)
O’Shea
Townsend( another awful pick but better than KB- who isn’t?, or an unfit Kelly)
Pieters (another contender for “best horse in the glue factory”)

Yokuslu (even though he’s been poor recently)
Rogic (although unproven in the Champs)

Wallace
Swift
Diangana

Grant (who wouldn’t take penalties!   Another poor player but does score a few goals

So, basically I’ve needed up picking pretty much the team that’s been starting recently.   I thought about Palmer/ Cleary/ Thomas-Asante but would they make things much better??  Probably no worse but probably no better.  I also thought about systems and fell back to 4-2-3-1 to make the best of what we’ve got.

What are your thought?   How do we “freshen things up” when one look at the bench tells us that we can only do so with Reach, Phillips or raw kids…?

6

West Bromwich Albion FC / Match fit

« on: August 02, 2022, 08:11:01 AM »

Hi all,   Andy Johnson made a comment during the Middlesbrough game about “it will be another 3-4 games before a team is match fit at the start of a season”.  As someone who’s never played or coached at a decent level, why is this?   We have pre season training, pre season friendly matches and we have enough players in the first team/ reserves/ kids etc to be playing 3 games a week on a full pitch with referees and competitive tension.  It can’t of course be a full league match but maybe they could have a little “league” system with 4 Albion teams all competing with each other pre season to make sure it matters.    Wouldn’t it be great for the team to really hit the ground running and be sharper than our early opponents who aren’t match fit until Sept.   What am I missing?

7

West Bromwich Albion FC / How many STH are renewing?

« on: April 30, 2022, 08:50:32 AM »

Hi all,

There’s always a few STHs who vow not to buy again at the end of a disappointing season but this year seems a LOT more vocal than for many years.  Maybe the increased cost of living has also added to that too.  Interested in seeing how we are all feeling.

8

West Bromwich Albion FC / Are we any better off after all the management changes?

« on: December 02, 2021, 05:27:32 PM »

When we think about all the changes of manager, are we really any better off?  Is Ismael a step up from Bilic?   We have spent/ invested / wasted (depending on your point of view…) huge amounts of money buying out the contracts of sacked managers, compensating clubs that we’ve occasionally poached, replacing the back room team, changing players to suit formations.   Would we honestly be any better of worse had we just stayed with Pearson, Di Matteo, Clarke, Moore?   All had their faults but we just stumble from average to average managers and trot out cliched phrases about “lost the dressing room”, “taken us as far as he can” etc.   Personally, I see very little difference from manager to manager but would a club really be brave enough to say that a 4 year contract means exactly that, you can boo all you like but we aren’t going to throw away more millions to swap average for average….?

9

West Bromwich Albion FC / Would any of the current team get into our Championship XI?

« on: November 09, 2021, 01:55:16 PM »

I was chatting with a friend at the match last week about whether any of the current crop would make our best ever Championship team.  Personally I can’t see it.  Would be interested in your thoughts:

Foster

Robinson
Gmac
Olsson
Dawson

Gera
Perreira
Koumas
Molumbu
Kilbane

SKP


Subs

Hoult
Gaardsoe
Albrectson
Sneekes
Morrison 
Hughes
SBT

That leaves no place, even on the bench, for Dorrans, McInnes, Holgate, Miller, Davies, Berahino (he had his issues but what a player to begin with…), Maresca, Brunt, Koren, Hunt and many more…

10

West Bromwich Albion FC / Corners

« on: December 07, 2019, 10:04:54 AM »

A few years ago we used to say “A corner for West Brom is almost as good as a penalty”.   We looked like we’d score from every one.   What’s changed??  I know that Gmac, Evans were good on the receiving end but surely we’ve got big lads who can get to the ball and hit the target from 10 yards out?  Similarly with the delivery,  it can’t all be down to Brunt can it?   We’ve got players who can put a dead ball in at pace.   Or is it that we just aren’t practicing them as much?   In the premiership we were scoring a dozen goals a season from corners. Something like 45% of our goals came from corners in one TP season.   Imagine what another dozen or more goals from corners might do for us this season...

11

West Bromwich Albion FC / Why are some players worse in the Championship?

« on: August 13, 2018, 10:32:50 AM »

Why is that some players look far worse in the Championship than Premier?   I can understand it being the other way around.  In the past we had the likes of Defreitas and Hughes who were brilliant in the Championship but struggled with the step up.  That happens in lots of sports; the classic batsman who destroys bowlers in a county game but can't score runs in a test when the bowlers are 5% quicker.

I was expecting the likes of Gibbs, Livermore, Hegazi and even Nyom to find the Championship much easier.   None were consistently brilliant in the Premier but they all had a handful of decent games that showed they could play a bit.  I thought that a drop to the Championship against less gifted players would take their performances from poor to good. Instead they've gone from poor to dreadful.  I just don't get it. 

What's the reason?  Is it complacency or arrogance because it's easy to play against lesser players? Is it the loss of Foster's marshalling ability behind them?  Is it that they can't take the speed and clatter of the Championship?

12

West Bromwich Albion FC / How to watch online?

« on: August 03, 2018, 05:36:47 PM »

Hi all,

Has anyone found a reliable way of watching all Albion's Championship matches?  I took a look at iFollow on the official wba.co.uk site but it looks like most matches will only be available as audio and highlights.   I'm not necessarily looking for a dodgy pirate site; I'm happy to pay a subscription.  Any ideas?

13

West Bromwich Albion FC / Looks like the Dingles have raised enough for a banner....

« on: March 29, 2018, 10:50:21 AM »

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/repaying-a-little-gesture-to-west-bromwich-albion/backers/?

14

West Bromwich Albion FC / Would you close the window right now?

« on: August 31, 2017, 05:50:07 PM »

Ok, quick and simple poll.  If you had the power to do so, would you close the window right now?   We hold on to Evans, Chadli, Rondon but don't get anyone new either.  What would you do if you had a magic wand...?

15

West Bromwich Albion FC / What are players "worth"

« on: July 23, 2017, 10:15:13 AM »

Apparantly, we've pulled out of the race for Gibbs having bid £10m against Arsenals demands of £12m.   Not sure if this is factual or not but it got me thinking about how a club sets their bid.  This isn't a debate about whether the whole football world has gone mad and whether Gibbs is "worth" 12 times more than Laurie Cunningham was!

When buying most things there are comparables.  If you're looking at a house there's probably another one in the same street that was sold recently and you can gauge the price.  Is it the same with players?  Do the clubs look at the prices paid for similar players in the same position (adjusted for injury records, contracts lengths etc) and arrive on a figure? 

Ultimately, the price of anything comes down to supply and demand.  By definition there is only one Gibbs but there are several good left backs.  How much demand is there in any one transfer window for such a player?  Probably not much.  For the elite clubs, Gibbs is below them and they have no interest. For Championship clubs and abroad, £12m is out of sight.  That leaves perhaps 14 Premiership clubs who might bid for him.  Half of those clubs are probably happy with their left back.  Many others would have identified other areas they want to strengthen ahead of left back.  It's quite possibly 3-4 potential bidders for 3-4 quality left backs similar to Gibbs.  Therefore, in such a small market, how can Albion be so sure that £10m is the walk-away price and Arsenal so sure that £12m is the minimum?

Perhaps it's driven by budgets rather than actual valuation criteria?  Maybe Albion said "we need a CH, DM,AM, ST and LB,  we've got X amount to spend and are happy to allocate 20% of our budget to a LB". A bit like when we go shopping and allocate X amount to something and no more as an overspend would mean we don't have enough left for the mortgage or council tax?  Maybe it's driven by Arsenal's budget?  If they only get £10m for Gibbs they won't be able to afford the winger they're after?

Not sure if anyone ITK at the club has any insight on this.  I'd love to know how much art and science there is behind it.  Is it the result of proper comparative analysis using a bespoke software package that values players precisely or is it just TP, JW et al in a room saying "whatcha think Tone? £10 mil? £12 mil?"

16

West Bromwich Albion FC / Official End of Season Review

« on: June 16, 2017, 11:06:37 AM »

https://www.wba.co.uk/news/2017/june/201617-end-of-season-dvd-out-now/

On sale now.  The marketing line is "Don't forget a single moment of the season".   If they sold something that could help erase the memories, they would do a roaring trade.   Will anybody be buying this?

17

West Bromwich Albion FC / Meeting players

« on: August 15, 2016, 08:17:51 AM »

Hi all,

What experiences have you had meeting our players?  I don't live in the Midlands any more so don't bump into players at supermarkets, restaurants etc.  Have they been nice/ engaging/ genuinely pleased to chat to a fan?

18

West Bromwich Albion FC / Lack of game time v over tired

« on: February 02, 2016, 03:27:27 PM »

I've never played football at any great competitive level but would love someone to explain the difference between lack of game time and overuse.

Poco has played recently and his lack of sharpness has been put down to lack of match fitness.  The whole team has played a lot since Christmas and TP has said our lethargy is due to too many games. 

How does this work?  Poco had the same pre-season as 1st teamers,  does the same training,  plays in practice matches.  He must do 99% of the work done by others.  He misses out on the 4-6 miles of running done on a Saturday but that could easily be caught up on.   Then we have the rest of he team that plays a fewlrr matches than normal and are knackered.  I appreciate that small differences are magnified in top level sport but is the difference really that great?

19

West Bromwich Albion FC / Most wronged side....

« on: January 01, 2016, 04:04:11 PM »

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-ranked-premier-leagues-10672315?

According to TEAMtalk, Albion have had only two contentious calls go their way, but eight against them

Tony Pulis has been frustrated by referee decisions going against West Bromwich Albion this season - and now it seems there's evidence to support his grievance.

Sports website TEAMtalk has employed a five-man panel to run the rule over major refereeing decisions in every Premier League game this season.

Upto and including gameweek 19, the panel believe Albion have had only two key calls go their way, but eight against them.

That's a net loss of six decisions leaving the Baggies level with West Ham as the top flight's most hard done by team.

That said, TEAMtalk reckon the referee gods were on Albion's side in the 1-0 win over Newcastle on Monday. And it would be hard to disagree.

Jonny Evans practically rugby tackled Magpies striker Aleksander Mitrovic as he attempted to shoot in the box.

Evans did (well to) mask some of the contact from the man in black Mike Jones.

And perhaps Mitrovic's reputation as a whiner preceded him.

But there have been countless occasions when West Brom have come off badly.

The home game against Leicester City springs to mind when Albion were denied two penalties for fouls in the box, one of which, Pulis felt, should have led to a dismissal.

Neither were given as Albion lost 3-2.

Pulis angrily confronted referee Anthony Taylor immediately after the whistle - a violation for which he was later fined £8,000 by the FA.

And it's Leicester, aided by those two advantageous calls, who are at the right end of the wronged league table.

The Foxes are said to have had nine incorrect decisions work in their favour and four go against them at a net gain of five.

Liverpool have an identical record.

20

West Bromwich Albion FC / The "I told you so" thread

« on: September 07, 2015, 08:57:28 PM »

It is all too easy to rewrite what we thought about players. I will personally admit to being excited about Carson and Moore and non-plussed by Gmac and Yacob.

I thought it might be good if we could set out in September exactly what we think of this year's new crop so we can look back next May without anyone changing their views.

Mine are:

Ron: big hit. 12-15 goals.
Gnabry: hit if fit. Big if though...
Evans: hit
Lindegaard: no impact. Cup games only.
Chester: big hit if he gets game time at CH but probably won't get it barring injury
McClean: won't be good enough
CMac: big hit if we can keep him fit
Lambert: great cameos and valuable goals but no big impact. 3-5 goals

21

West Bromwich Albion FC / How often are you checking?

« on: August 04, 2015, 02:20:34 PM »

As we enter the final stages of the pre-season and the transfer window slamming shut (it never closes in the press; always slams shut), how often are you checking Newsnow or whatever feed you use?  Now that we might be signing a keeper, buying a Belgian wonder-kid and selling our top striker, I'm refreshing every 3 hours. How about you?

22

West Bromwich Albion FC / Could you and would you invest £10,000 in Albion

« on: February 24, 2015, 10:45:38 AM »

There has been some discussion about the new investor and I have given my thoughts elsewhere about the likelihood of attracting an investor and how hard it might be to find an Albion fan who would have the means and desire to buy us.

It got me thinking about whether we fans would actually put our own money where our mouth is. Purely hypothetically, if shares became available at £10,000 each, would you invest.  If we have a support of 50,000 (probably the number of people who would want a ticket if we got to Wembley) and only 1 in 5 supporters were to put up £10,000 each, we could bid JP £100m for the club...

You would then own shares and receive dividends if the business made a profit.

£10,000 is a lot of money but I would ask you to ask yourself a few questions:

-Do you own your own house? The average Midlands house is worth £181k. Remortgaging for another £10k is only 6% of your house. It will only add about £30 per month to a mortgage.
-Do you smoke? A 20 a day smoker spends over £3k a year. You could buy your piece of Albion in 3 years
-Do you have a pension? £10k is less than 10% of the average pension pot.
-Do you have more than £20k worth of cars that you could switch to cheaper cars?
-Do you spend more than £5k a year on holidays? Again, you could take cheaper holidays and over a few years pay off your investment.

I am sure there are plenty of fans who genuinely have no way of raising £10k. If you are unemployed, have no assets, live in a rented house, live with mum and dad etc then clearly such an investment is out of reach but I would still be fascinated to know what you would do if you won £100k on a scratchcard tomorrow. Would you put £10k of that into Albion?

Tough question I know. It's always easy spending someone else's money but would we actually spend our own.  Please try to give the question some thought and provide a genuine answer.

23

West Bromwich Albion FC / "Pulisball"-Is it really that easy?

« on: January 26, 2015, 11:03:10 PM »

This isn't the place to debate whether TP is/isn't going to be right for us, keep us up or keep us entertained. That is being given a thorough airing elsewhere.

My question is a much simpler one. Is "Pulisball" really is easy as it sounds and if so, why aren't more people doing it?

From the press, fans and players of Stoke, Palace, Albion and with our own eyes it seems that his recipe for success is:

1. Discipline. Foster has said there is lots of shouting, fines and running. None of that seems too difficult to replicate
2. Men behind the ball working hard and chasing down. When combined with the discipline mentioned above, this doesn't look too hard either. Just tell the players that they will be fined/ punished/ dropped/ sold if they don't give it 100% and keep their shape.
3. Big boot. Call it long ball, hoof ball or whatever; get the ball up to the big lad and break at pace to support him. Again, doesn't appear to require super-human skills.

It's already been said that TP's other skills are mixed at best. He doesn't appear to be better than average in the transfer market. He doesn't appear better than average at bringing youngsters through.  It really does seem to be about getting a few basic things right.

This is what really puzzles me.

TP has just signed a massively lucrative contract. £1.75m for 2.5 years was reported in one paper. With win bonuses, survival bonuses, etc it will be much more. There are thousands of managers in the UK and yet he is in the top 20. There are also scores of out of work managers who can't get a birth (Hoddle, Keegan, Jewell, Reid, Roeder, Wilkins etc).  Across Europe managers are paid much, much less than in the Premier League. There are several thousand more managers at every level from Sunday morning leagues upwards that would kill for the job that TP has.

If the job really is just shout/chase/boot, why isn't everyone else doing it?  Why hasn't Glen Roeder said "forget pretty football. I want £1.75m a year and I will whole-heartedly adopt the shout/chase/boot philosophy". For that matter, when things have got tough for Wenger or Martinez haven't they said "I hate the shout/chase/boot thing but I need just a few good results to pick my season up; let's turn to the dark side". Perhaps a new and up and coming manager might say "I don't want to be known for shout/chase/boot but I will build my CV on getting a League 2 team to the Championship and then maybe switch to better football later".   Why do so few do it?

In most industries supply and demand dictate price. If everyone can supply a particular skill, the price (wage) falls.  If TP's skill is really that ubiquitous, shouldn't there be dozens of clones?

Thoughts?

24

West Bromwich Albion FC / Too many first choicers...?

« on: September 23, 2013, 05:33:52 PM »

After all of the anxiety of the summer, are we now suffering from too many players who are arguably first team?  I know that in the modern age it is all about squad rather than team but it seems to me that Albion now have at least 20 players who would regard themselves as deserving of a first team slot. Indeed, when I look at our 2nd XI it is still one of our best ever Premier League sides:

First XI

Foster

Jones
Olsson
GMac
Ridgewell

Mulumbu
Amulfitano
Sessegnon
Morrison
Sinclair

Anelka

2nd Xl

Myhill

Reid
Dawson
Lugano
Popov

Yacob
Vydra
Dorrans
Brunt

Long
Anichebe


That's two really, really strong sides without counting players such as Camp, Thorne, Berahino, Gera, Rosenberg etc that would have walked into previous Albion sides.

Whilst this might seem like a great position, it must create problems too. There may be some players who know their place in the pecking order and go to a club expecting to be well paid back up. When I look at our 2nd XI I see lots of players who I'm sure would regard themselves as first picks. I'm not sure how Steve Clarke will deal with this, especially in a World Cup year where everyone will be desperate to shine. We don't even have the luxury of Europe where we can give everyone a competitive run-out. Our realistic ambitions in the cups probably adds no more than another 6 or so first team games on top of the league.

I have tried the same exercise looking at the squads of other sides, including some of the big boys and the gap between 1st and 2nd XI seems much, much greater (albeit that I don't know their teams as well).

I hope Steve Clarke has a good strong door as it is going to get a lot of knocking....