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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: did you know ? thread

« on: October 24, 2023, 03:47:33 PM »

In the all time top flight table, West Brom have earned 452 more points that Wolves.  Albion are currently 11th and Wolves 14th.

https://www.worldfootball.net/alltime_table/eng-premier-league/

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Best/worst Albion managers and “owners”

« on: August 02, 2023, 09:30:20 AM »

Best 3 in my lifetime

Ardiles
Megson
Hodgson

Worst 3

Talbot
Gould
Little

If CC can get us into the play offs this season it will be some sort of miracle.  Roll on Blackburn.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Your first ever Albion game

« on: February 13, 2023, 09:21:36 AM »

At home to Blues for me on 1st November 1986.  We won 3-2 and if I remember it right, we went 3 up and then they pulled 2 back and had a third disallowed but I was only 7 so my memory is a bit foggy.  Attendance was 15,029 and I've been hooked ever since.  I remember thinking I'd never see Albion in the Premier League or win a major trophy again.  Still waiting for that trophy!

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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL PREMIER LEAGUE THREAD

« on: October 17, 2021, 12:22:18 PM »

I dont care for the villa much but equally thats a horrible result in other ways. Jammy dingles do it again, don will be happy.

I must admit, I had a little chuckle to myself when the winner went in.  The Villa fans I know have gone back into full arrogance mode, so this should bring them down a peg or two 

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Fans behaviour at away games

« on: October 02, 2021, 05:58:09 PM »

My 10 year old lad is autistic and he really wants to go to an away game, but I don't think I'll be taking him any time soon after reading this.  It's a shame really as he loves Albion and football in general, but I can't do anything that would cause him any sort of distress. 

He loves going to the home matches and we always arrive nice and early to avoid the big crowds, and we can get settled in our seats.

It's a real shame because we've always had a pretty decent reputation, or at least I thought we did.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Matchday travel and parking

« on: September 11, 2021, 09:12:24 PM »

The traffic was horrendous Today.  I thought it was bad v Sheffield United so we set off at 1:15 from Aldridge in Walsall Today, thinking it would be clearer, and as soon as we got on the M5 it was gridlocked.  Also the return journey was bad as we went up the Newton Rd and hit the roadworks towards the Scott Arms. 

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Adam Reach signs

« on: August 02, 2021, 06:55:59 PM »

Scored a worldie at Vile Park in the 1st minute so he'll do for me

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: New Manager Thread

« on: May 21, 2021, 02:18:55 PM »

Nuno to Spurs maybe?  I would love him at the Baggies but i can't ever see it happening.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Luke Dowling

« on: May 21, 2021, 08:08:22 AM »

These are his signings during his time at this football club

2018/2019

Stefan Johansen - loan - meh
Jefferson Montero - loan - failure
Mason Holgate - loan - success
Jacob Murphy - loan - failure
Bakery Sako - short term deal - failure

2019/20

Kenneth Zohore - £8m - failure
Charlie Austin - £4m - meh
Romaine Sawyers - £3m - meh
Darnel Furlong - £1.5m - meh
Semi Ajayi - £1.5m - meh
Matheus Pereira - loan - success
Ali Al Habsi- short term deal
Filip Krovinovic- meh
Grady Diangana - loan - success
Chris Willock - loan - failure
Kamil Grosicki - £750k - failure
Lee Peltier - free - failure
Callum Robinson - loan - meh

2020/21

Karlan Grant - £15m - failure
Grady Diangana - £14m - failure
Matheus Pereira - £8m - success
David Button - £1m - meh
Cedric Kipre - £1m - failure
Bran Ivanovic - free - failure
Callum Robinson - swap - failure
Conor Gallagher - success
Filip Krovinovic - loan - failure
Mbaye Diange - loan - meh
Robert Snodgrass - £1m - failure
Maitland Niles - loan - success
Andy Lonergsn - free - meh
Okay Yokuslu - loan - success

That is 32 signings under his stewardship - there are 7 successes and you can argue that Pereira (x2) Diangana, Yokuslu and AMN were heavily manager influenced.

What a thoroughly uninspiring piece of recruitment.

This just shows what's happened to the club since Ashworth left.  A thoroughly depressing list of failures with a few lucky successes in there.  The trouble with being a club at our level and financial setup is the ones who are a success will inevitably leave, so we need the person who is in charge of recruitment to be a lot better at finding the good ones.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Are we a well run club?

« on: May 20, 2021, 03:35:34 PM »

It's unrealistic to expect us to bounce back in the top 2 every season.  I don't think any club would manage it and the once you're in the play offs anything can happen really.  We faced Villa when they were on an incredible run from 12th to 5th. which carried on right through the play offs as well.

We are a well run club financially but I do wish we had more stability on the playing side of things, especially with such a high turnover of managers which is quite worrying.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Conor Gallagher (on loan from Chelsea)

« on: May 20, 2021, 10:24:08 AM »

He was by far the best player against WHU in my opinion and whilst I don't think he would break into he Chelsea side, he will definitely not want to spend another year in the Championship.  He could easily slot into a bottom half Premier League side .

12

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: 2021/22 Kit

« on: May 18, 2021, 12:38:12 PM »

I actually quite like the look of these if the Twitter mock-ups are anything close to what they will be.  The dark/black one is nice and the home although not a traditional WBA kit, is nice with the thick stripe down the middle and blue sleeves.  The yellow is very much like the 'Arsenal bruised banana' kit of the 80's/90's and probably my least fave of the three.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Ferguson and Barry

« on: May 17, 2021, 01:44:45 PM »

I read Yesterday that Ferguson has now had 3 injuries in the past couple of years.  Also Palace have been playing another young fullback who is about 21 so I can't see Ferguson playing for them any time soon.  What is more worrying is the amount of back-room staff and players who have left WBA over the past few years, which shows that something clearly isn't right behind the scenes.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: 2021/22 Kit

« on: May 17, 2021, 01:40:50 PM »

Saw this on Twitter. Hopefully just a concept..

That is not a West Brom kit.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Sam Allardyce

« on: May 17, 2021, 12:51:49 PM »

I voted 'Yes'.  Before he was appointed I didn't want him anywhere near my club, but as time has gone on I have seen a vast improvement in what is in all honesty an awful squad at this level.  He has turned us from expecting to get hammered every Week to a side that is genuinely in with a chance of getting something out of every game, and I also believe he will be able to attract the players to get us straight back up.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: New Manager Thread

« on: May 14, 2021, 10:18:40 PM »

No way will it be Lampard in my opinion. Our owner wants out and to achieve that he needs us back in the prem ASAP. Allardyce and if not it'll be Wilder.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Under 23's / Academy Thread

« on: May 14, 2021, 07:54:48 PM »

Hate to say it but Barry is going to be some player.  Fellows has easily been our best player.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Under 23's / Academy Thread

« on: May 14, 2021, 07:22:11 PM »

they have mentioned it, not long after the co commentator said Villa are a big club and had won the European cup (as is tradition whenever they play).

Well their fans never mention it so the commentators have to make up for it 

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General Football & Sports / Re: Matheus Pereira

« on: May 14, 2021, 12:59:45 PM »

He is as good as Grealish

Unpopular opinion incoming; I'm not sure I completely agree with that.  Villa were sitting in 12th place in the Championship before Grealish came back from injury.  He dragged them up to fifth, through the play offs and then played a massive part in keeping them up last season.  Pereira is very good but I wouldn't put him at the level of Grealish at the moment. 

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General Football & Sports / Re: Matheus Pereira

« on: May 14, 2021, 09:09:26 AM »

and Villa didn't get that money for him or, if I remember rightly, no reported bids for him as he's not worth it, same as Pereira isn't a £70m-£90m player.

I think Jacko (might have been someone else) has made a good point much earlier in the thread that if we want to put clubs off then we put a price of around £50M on Periera, no club is going to pay that for him.

That would be the best move the club could make I think.  I would offer him Premier League wages to do another year with us in the Championship and then he can leave if we fail to go up or he wants to move on.

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General Football & Sports / Re: Matheus Pereira

« on: May 14, 2021, 08:57:41 AM »

It's not hard at all to stand out above mediocre players when you have more ability than them.

My point is no top side will pay anything like what you think (£70M & £90M) for a 25yr old player that has been a stand out in a poor side for 1 season at the top level.

I disagree that Pereira has "more than proved himself in the premier" ..anyone can have 1 good season in a league it's doing it continuously that's key.

Pereira has more goals & assists than Grealish got last year, and he was valued at £80M last Summer.  I think we'd be mad to sell him for under £40M

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Under 23's / Academy Thread

« on: May 14, 2021, 08:46:00 AM »

The FA Youth Cup Semi Final is at 6pm Today on BT Sport 2 for anyone that's interested.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: New Manager Thread

« on: May 12, 2021, 07:39:04 PM »

I can't believe a lot of people would want Lampard over Wilder.  Wilder has proven himself at Oxford, Northampton and took the Blades from League 1 to 9th in the Premier League.  I don't think he can really be blamed for what happened this year either as they had some boardroom issues last Summer if I remember right and they also had some injuries early on.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: So Happy

« on: May 10, 2021, 02:03:53 PM »

We should be aiming to be in the top division but there's no point being there if we can't compete.  Under the current regime we will never have the funds to have a proper go at it.  We have certainly spent more time at the top than the 2nd or 3rd tiers: -

Seasons spent at Level 1 of football league system: 80
Seasons spent at Level 2 of football league system: 39
Seasons spent at Level 3 of football league system: 2
Seasons spent at Level 4 of football league system: 0

This was slightly out of date and we have now spent 82 seasons at the top and in comparison to other clubs as of 2020/21: -

Seasons spent in the Top Flight

Everton: 118
Villa: 107
Liverpool: 106
Arsenal: 104
Man United: 96
Man City: 92
Newcastle: 89
Spurs, Chelsea, Sunderland: 86
West Brom: 82

Wolves are further down the list on 66 and Blues on 57

https://www.myfootballfacts.com/england_footy/football-league/seasons-in-top-flight/

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: So Happy

« on: May 10, 2021, 01:30:31 PM »

We should be aiming to be in the top division but there's no point being there if we can't compete.  Under the current regime we will never have the funds to have a proper go at it.  We have certainly spent more time at the top than the 2nd or 3rd tiers: -

Seasons spent at Level 1 of football league system: 80
Seasons spent at Level 2 of football league system: 39
Seasons spent at Level 3 of football league system: 2
Seasons spent at Level 4 of football league system: 0