[boinging_along]

I WAS pleased when we got them both, sadly Dianagnas gone off the boil but i wasnt referring to him either. Not sure what you are trying to say for me?

Just that it's easy for us to talk about how poor the signings are *now* and how we shouldn't have made them, but that seems harsh when, at the time, we were happy with the signings.  Your post was pretty critical on the spending and the quality of players brought in but looking back, pretty much all of them, were received positively as good signings.  (By most people I mean, not just you).

[beechyboy90]

I went on a rant on twitter after the game and finally getting to the forum when calmer and cleaner language can be used.

Well the starting lineup was asking for trouble from the off. I get if we getting rid of Austin. Grant and Hrk are injured protect Robinson. But why not start that young lad diaby that made the bench the other week? Krovonovic on the wing? Why have semi in holding midfield and Livermore? Chances for harper and edwards and diaby with the rest of side would have been my team.

Button: wont be pushing for number 1 spot any time soon.
Peltier: run his nuts off both sides of pitch and seemed to find his level today.
Gibbs: awful understood why he was hooked.
Bartley: wasnt great but looked streets ahead of Ivanovic.
Ivanovic: looks as bad as Lugano when we signed him-past it.

Krovonovic: was busy without doing huge amount few shots on goal tried to combine with periera if that was his audition for wba future I would be worried.
Grosicki: faded in and out for the 2 hours had moments when he was dangerous other times anonymity.
Semi: the pick of our holding midfielders did more in half a game at cm than Livermore managed in 2 hours. Looked good at centre back got us a goal. Man of match contender.
Gallagher buzzed around for 60 minutes did more than most of the side.
Livermore: played for 2 hours his notable contributions were numerous overcooked passes and him scoring a penalty in the shoot out. Bang average championship player. Needs to be away from our team and hopefully the bench.

Periera man of the match tried to make things happen all over the pitch despite his confidence being rock bottom. Hope missed penalty in shootout doesnt damage his confidence further than it already is.

Furlong came on won some headers made some runs was an out ball without really impressing.
Edwards came on and also tried to make things happen should have started
Kipre looked better option than Ivanovic and possibly bartley but again didnt set the world alight.
Oshea steady but wasnt going to be on long enough to really impact the game.
Sawyers: casual start to finish almost got caught out doing a cruyff turn in his own box. Another poor centre midfielder we have on our books.

I didnt want billic gone I accepted it. But under big sam we have been embarrassed 4 out of 5 games. Not sure he is going to get enough players in to last in this job.

[boinging_along]

Semi - man of the match contender!

Really lucky to not have got a straight red (he would have had that challenge been at the Hawthorns).  Was all at sea in the midfield, then was shockingly bad for at least one of their goals.

[gazberg]

Just that it's easy for us to talk about how poor the signings are *now* and how we shouldn't have made them, but that seems harsh when, at the time, we were happy with the signings.  Your post was pretty critical on the spending and the quality of players brought in but looking back, pretty much all of them, were received positively as good signings.  (By most people I mean, not just you).

LEt me clarify i'm on about the 'strategy' rathe than singling out the individuals. Ignoring DCM so he can get his pal Krov in to be 3rd choice to the awful Sawyers etc We've got 3 players in some positions and none in others. To balance it out the board also wasted money signing players he didnt want. Bilic and the board = a match made in hell from Summer window 2019

[Atomic]

Semi - man of the match contender!

Really lucky to not have got a straight red (he would have had that challenge been at the Hawthorns).  Was all at sea in the midfield, then was shockingly bad for at least one of their goals.

MOTM contender? Aside from his goal he was absolutely shocking all game.

[TheJacko2000]

MOTM contender? Aside from his goal he was absolutely shocking all game.

I honestly thought this was tongue in cheek from Beechy. He was abysmal.

[boinging_along]

LEt me clarify i'm on about the 'strategy' rathe than singling out the individuals. Ignoring DCM so he can get his pal Krov in to be 3rd choice to the awful Sawyers etc We've got 3 players in some positions and none in others. To balance it out the board also wasted money signing players he didnt want. Bilic and the board = a match made in hell from Summer window 2019

That's fair enough - I agree that there's holes in the squad.  It's hard to say what happened though as we don't know what the board was up to.  Was Slav given the option of a DM or Krov and chose Krov?  Or did he give a list of players he needed and the board just want "ta da!!".  We know Bilic wanted more but I genuinely don't know where the responsibility lies on what players we did or didn't get.  All we know is we didn't get enough.

[gazberg]

In all the papers and articles i read Slav was adamant about Krov and he must be signed.

Money was wasted in all areas. Before any signings were made i was calling for us to do a Norwich because this mess seemed inevitable but Dowling wanted to save his bacon and hung the coaching/playing staff out to dry saying we've made a good fist of it!

[Baggie79]

An unnecessary distraction out the way. Onto the next.

Are you talking about SA?

[Adder]

Definite lack of athleticism in our squad. The only players who played today that I'd describe as reasonably athletic would be Gallagher, Grosicki, Edwards, Furlong, Ajayi. Pereira is talented but not dynamic, ditto Krov though he's on a lower level to Pereira.
We had nothing constructive from the fullbacks. Gibbs seems to be either afraid to do anything for fear of getting injured or just shot to pieces. Peltier may be an honest pro but he's got nothing constructive about him whatsoever. We are missing Townsend a lot for his involvement and ability to play a part in constructive moves.

Our fitness levels again looking very, very suspect.

[boinging_along]

In all the papers and articles i read Slav was adamant about Krov and he must be signed.

Money was wasted in all areas. Before any signings were made i was calling for us to do a Norwich because this mess seemed inevitable but Dowling wanted to save his bacon and hung the coaching/playing staff out to dry saying we've made a good fist of it!

Well, I disagree with the wasted, to even do a Norwich we needed to at least bring back in the players who were key to promotion, else you've got an even weaker side and even more work to do the following season.

I agree about doing a Norwich.  As soon as the board had realised the funds weren't there that Bilic needed we should have planned for relegation and looking to keep the team that got us promoted together and regroup for the following season.  We'd still be ahead of the plan.  Currently we're just binning everything off and starting over constantly. That doesn't fit into Lai's need to sell the club though.

I think it's what we did so well under Megson during our proper yoyo years.  We weren't quite good enough to bridge the gap, so we went down, kept the core players made improvements and gave it another go - until we got all our ducks in a row and looked to have made that step up. 

[gazberg]

Definitely agree with you there BA. It was clear the transfer budget was seriously lower than orignally advised so what we wanted to achieve wasn't going to happen. Take it on the chin and rebuild the next season best we can.

[BaggieBoy04]

Well that performance was Gutless, Spineless, Lack of Passion, Hunger and Fight. I'm done for this season Christ I've shown my fight on Fifa 20 to scrap a win against Liverpool in the EFL Cup Final and to get a 2-1 win over Bournemouth. I'm going to build my Albion team on Fifa 21 using our Pitiful 16 Mil Budget.

[Ross]

At least we got to see Kipre today.

The lad must be so devoid of confidence this season. Anyone wielding the axe after a substitution appearance wants shooting.

Bartley found his level today. If you transfer the confidence / arrogance that Bartley has into Kipre then you have a player.

Still have to pinch myself that he makes the team let alone has captained the side, and people wonder why we are in the state we are in!

Wouldn’t surprise me if we get up to conceding 100 this year, and by that token you had to give a run to the like of Kipre - for next seasons Championship side if nothing else.

[tommcneill]

Well, I disagree with the wasted, to even do a Norwich we needed to at least bring back in the players who were key to promotion, else you've got an even weaker side and even more work to do the following season.

I agree about doing a Norwich.  As soon as the board had realised the funds weren't there that Bilic needed we should have planned for relegation and looking to keep the team that got us promoted together and regroup for the following season.  We'd still be ahead of the plan.  Currently we're just binning everything off and starting over constantly. That doesn't fit into Lai's need to sell the club though.

I think it's what we did so well under Megson during our proper yoyo years.  We weren't quite good enough to bridge the gap, so we went down, kept the core players made improvements and gave it another go - until we got all our ducks in a row and looked to have made that step up.

Not necessarily, majority of the first XI from the season before maybe, but then you add Prem quality players into the rest of the squad thus pushing your better championship squad players onto the subs bench, like Krov.

We didn’t do that.

I’d love to know if we had any bids for players that Bilic decided he would rather keep faith in.

 

[ex coseley kid]

Rather than blame our managers - and it is easy to do as they have both been culpable to some extent or else there would be points on the board - I am pretty sure we ALL agree that Dowling has gloriously, spectacularly mismanaged the whole debacle and above all it is he who should be hung out to dry. I actually feel sorry for the owners who are looking to him for guidance. Talk about the blind leading the blind.

So my hopes now are that Sam A has got a lot out of this last match in terms of firing bullets and looking for replacements. I thought Kipre maybe could be moulded into something worthwhile over some of our current options. I hope we have seen the last of a few of our journeymen - but that we don't replace them with anything similar.

I'm not a fan of Sam but I certainly don't think he's stupid. We have had some disastrous results but there is still some quality in the squad, just no confidence. I really hope he can fill the gaps, lose the rubbish, keep the quality and harness it to its full.

If not, by March I'd rather we bombed him out and ran the season out with the likes of Mozza in charge. I could care less about Wolves, from the point of view that we are going to lose and by what margin actually no longer seems relevant, having become experts at shipping goals. I just want today to be about a few doors closing on some dismal players who have been pants for a long time now. And I'm not referring to the Bilic signings.

[gazberg]

Yes we can all bicker all we like about Bilic or Allardyce but it all starts way above them.

[ex coseley kid]

Yes we can all bicker all we like about Bilic or Allardyce but it all starts way above them.

Where's the thumbs up emoji on here.....

[tommcneill]

Rather than blame our managers - and it is easy to do as they have both been culpable to some extent or else there would be points on the board - I am pretty sure we ALL agree that Dowling has gloriously, spectacularly mismanaged the whole debacle and above all it is he who should be hung out to dry. I actually feel sorry for the owners who are looking to him for guidance. Talk about the blind leading the blind.

So my hopes now are that Sam A has got a lot out of this last match in terms of firing bullets and looking for replacements. I thought Kipre maybe could be moulded into something worthwhile over some of our current options. I hope we have seen the last of a few of our journeymen - but that we don't replace them with anything similar.

I'm not a fan of Sam but I certainly don't think he's stupid. We have had some disastrous results but there is still some quality in the squad, just no confidence. I really hope he can fill the gaps, lose the rubbish, keep the quality and harness it to its full.

If not, by March I'd rather we bombed him out and ran the season out with the likes of Mozza in charge. I could care less about Wolves, from the point of view that we are going to lose and by what margin actually no longer seems relevant, having become experts at shipping goals. I just want today to be about a few doors closing on some dismal players who have been pants for a long time now. And I'm not referring to the Bilic signings.

Excellent post

Their needs to be a long term vision though and with the club up for sale that’s not going to happen.

[boinging_along]

Not necessarily, majority of the first XI from the season before maybe, but then you add Prem quality players into the rest of the squad thus pushing your better championship squad players onto the subs bench, like Krov.

We didn’t do that.

I’d love to know if we had any bids for players that Bilic decided he would rather keep faith in.

But the good parts of the first XI from the previous season are where the bulk of our budget went.  It's the problem with doing the previous season on the cheap by relying on loans.

[ex coseley kid]

Excellent post

Their needs to be a long term vision though and with the club up for sale that’s not going to happen.

Burst my bubble why don't you Tom! Kidding, sadly I know you are dead right.

[tommcneill]

But the good parts of the first XI from the previous season are where the bulk of our budget went.  It's the problem with doing the previous season on the cheap by relying on loans.

I’d hardly call the loan players we signed as doing it on the cheap.

Again though, all Bilic signings.

Yes we spent a large bit of the budget on players from last season, gladly too because both have resale value. Diangana was a tad expensive, I’d say 10m overpriced.

What was cheap about our loan signings last season??

Perhaps that was the only way we could sign them and quite obviously Bilic wanted them....again the club BACKED him on those signings

[beechyboy90]

I honestly thought this was tongue in cheek from Beechy. He was abysmal.

Was tongue in cheek he was shocking but wasnt the worst. Only periera worth his wage today possibly Gallagher

[skyclad99]

I was too cross to come onto the forum last night.

Having read the thread it has all been said. I went to bed last night and asked myself when was the last time I enjoyed watching the Albion, and my answer was when Gayle and Barnes were in the team, closely followed by the first half of last season due to Pereira. Last nights abysmal showing was just so far away from that.

I don't blame Sam for this, the phrase 'square pegs and round holes' springs to mind, and until he is allowed to procure some round pegs then the jury is out for me. As much as I am not a fan of his, I like his honesty in the after match interviews; he is angry and rightly so.

The blame firmly sits with the owner and the board for me, no plan and direction other than 'save my investment' - firefighting of the highest order.

We are a complete embarrassment to the Premier league at the moment, absolute cannon fodder for anyone playing us, and for me this is all down to the lack of a plan/strategy and no investment.

Well done Mr Lai & 'Ken' - the quicker you are gone the better. 

[Groovephil]

Verdict:

I’m done. I’ll comeback when the cancer at our club has been removed.

That is all