11

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Tom Fellows

« Last post by ttree30 on Today at 11:34:03 AM »

I’m thrilled with what Tom Fellows has done. And full marks to Corberan for gradually integrating him into the team.

Same goes for Palmer in goal.

Corberan also managed to get some sort of tune out of overpaid, ageing players that he had no choice but to work with - it wasn’t always a pleasing melody, but at least they were mostly in harmony.

Those are the marks of a good manager. Coach players to be better and make the most of what you have.

He’s done that brilliantly.

And huge credit to Fellows and Palmer as well for the way they’ve grown and developed.

12

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: WBA NEW OWNERS - Bilkul football

« Last post by lewisant on Today at 11:32:45 AM »

Would have hoped Patel would have sorted some background staff out, most importantly a sporting director by now. The directors of the club also need fleshing out. Only Patel and Miles as far as I’m aware.

Hopefully this is high on the agenda. Along with improving our recruitment department…

I think the retained list may set the tone but also - we may see that a couple are offered deals and await results. If all are realised with Mowatt and Kipre offered deals then that for me is a positive sign. I wouldn’t be against Bartley and Phillips getting a year, Bartley more so but I’d rather we said goodbye to them both.

If we see Kipre and Mowatt leave and new deals for M’Vila, Reach and some other oldies then that sets a more negative tone.

I would like to say though at the start of the season we weren’t even sure if the club would be going forward and there were protests so the fact we’ve gone to the 2nd Leg of the play-offs even into the second half with new owners in the stands puts things into perspective.

13

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Josh Maja joins Albion

« Last post by lewisant on Today at 11:31:46 AM »

In all honesty I have never rated Maja, and him not getting his fitness levels up to the desired levels doesn't surprise me.

I hope we can get rid of him and get better.

Personally I thought he was a decent player when we signed him, still think he is and hopefully with a full pre season with BTA and maybe a new striker we’ll have a bit of a new look attack if you consider Faal and Cleary possibly being involved.

14

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: State of the Squad - (Championship 2024/25)

« Last post by ttree30 on Today at 11:25:37 AM »

We must try to find a striker. Even if it’s someone who predominantly holds the ball and acts as a focus, allowing our midfielders/wide men to get forward and also have the confidence to then move the ball up the pitch more quickly.

We often play square because there’s nothing up there. Johnston and Fellows have helped as substitute outlets - both integrated by Corberan.

But strikers are the most expensive and difficult players to find. Every other club wants them; PL clubs can afford to sign simply on the basis of potential and stick in their reserves or loan out; we have little or no money.

We’re losing £2m a month or more and probably need to lose all our out of contract players and loanees just to break even with what would be left.

Improving our forward personnel is going to be a hellishly hard task. But we absolutely must get rid of older, expensive players - especially those from easier to fill positions deeper on the pitch - and hope we can unearth a gem or two in the market.

15

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« Last post by KYA on Today at 11:24:39 AM »

Corberan isn't perfect and I've stated time and again that he isn't the genius some of our fans make him out to be.  However, he's done a good job here and any suggestion of sacking him is in my opinion illogical.

I'm big enough to respect people's opinions and I don't like calling people stupid or mad or telling them to "give their head a wobble", that sort of stuff is immature and at 50 years old I know that everyone gets things wrong and no one knows everything. Opinions are opinions, everyone is entitled to them and no one is ever proved right or wrong until subsequent events provide evidence.

The club is stable and safe now thanks majorly to Shilen Patel arriving and early impressions of him don't point towards him seeking to change the head coach. I just don't see it.

Let's all (fans) pull together and back the owner, back the manager and back the club.

A reasoned and well balanced post if the majority were along this line it would make  much easier viewing.

16

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: State of the Squad - (Championship 2024/25)

« Last post by tlms-p23 on Today at 11:15:44 AM »

If Grant can be shipped out permanently then I’d happily do it without a transfer fee. If he stays his contribution will be next to nothing. Dike we can forget about until 2025 and then realistically what is is going to contribute in the second half of the season ?

As far as I know, Grant is going to be a tough one to shift. Someone will correct me if I’m wrong but I think:

We bought him for 6 instalments of £2.5m. We currently owe two lots of £2.5m - meaning his book value to WBA is £5m.

So if we sell him for any less than £5m (not that anyone would pay anything close to this), the difference is recorded as a loss. And given we could be in perilous territory with FFP, the club won’t want to do this.

More likely he is loaned out again and sold next summer, or his contract runs out in 2 years time if we are unable to sell him for at least £2.5m next summer… Many on this forum are savvier with company accounting than I am but I think that’s the measure of it?

It’s a difficult position for the club to be in knowing the scale of the wasted investment (see also Diangana, Burke, Chadli), but Arsenal were in the same boat when Arteta went in. They bit the bullet with Ozil, Aubamayang and a few others, took the losses, cleared the decks, changed the culture and 3/4 years later are much better for it.

17

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Kyle Bartley

« Last post by ttree30 on Today at 11:12:49 AM »

Time to say goodbye. The rebuild starts now

Agree. He absolutely needs to go.

There must be younger, cheaper, better centre backs than him out there. And keeping players like him guarantees we make zero progress.

No more contracts for him, Phillips and others. They’re old, they’re expensive and they’ve repeatedly shown they’re not good enough.

18

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« Last post by ttree30 on Today at 11:10:10 AM »

Overall Carlos has done a superb job , now he hopefully has the chance to build his own side but that might be a step back to take two forward for a start and its not going to be easy to find the right players . The released list will be interesting viewing , I suspect he might offer deals to a couple of older players like Phillips , Bartley or even Reach .

I really hope he doesn’t offer Phillips a deal. He should have gone years ago.

Bartley has gained a little redemption after his “arm waving” debacle against Blues last season when I hoped we’d never see him again, but surely we can find a better, younger (and probably cheaper) centre back than him?

As for Reach. Why?

These players need to go. I don’t think there’ll be a massive queue for their service either - unless they’re prepared to play for a lot less money.

The ones that are hardest to recruit are further up the pitch, especially up front where we have basically nothing at the moment. That’s going to be difficult to fix.

19

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Kyle Bartley

« Last post by graka on Today at 11:07:10 AM »

Bartley is an awkward one. If we can keep kipre I’d happily release Bartley and try to sign someone who is more comfortable on the ball
If kipre goes we could be left with Ajayi and Bartley and neither are comfortable on the ball
CC clearly doesn’t rate Ajayi
I think looking at the bigger picture Bartley has to go even though if financial restrictions were not there I would offer him a year on vastly reduced wages

20

West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« Last post by baggieboy79 on Today at 11:03:24 AM »

Corberan isn't perfect and I've stated time and again that he isn't the genius some of our fans make him out to be.  However, he's done a good job here and any suggestion of sacking him is in my opinion illogical.

I'm big enough to respect people's opinions and I don't like calling people stupid or mad or telling them to "give their head a wobble", that sort of stuff is immature and at 50 years old I know that everyone gets things wrong and no one knows everything. Opinions are opinions, everyone is entitled to them and no one is ever proved right or wrong until subsequent events provide evidence.

The club is stable and safe now thanks majorly to Shilen Patel arriving and early impressions of him don't point towards him seeking to change the head coach. I just don't see it.

Let's all (fans) pull together and back the owner, back the manager and back the club.

Great post and I think we need to back the owners and pull together through this transitional period.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions but when I see the manager or some of the players who were brought in and have clearly done a good job (not all of them, granted), being unfairly criticised, it does frustrated me.