Megson,5 incoming?

[baggieal]

All true but there is money there to be spent. If it is £40m then so be it. We have no left back at all. You cannot blame the chairman for that. We have 4 centre backs if you include Dawson. Why is a centre back a priority? Why are we prepared to throw over £20m at that position?
We are believing the spin from TP and then blaming the wrong people. Oh poor TP they won't give him any money to spend . When in reality there is money there. I repeat we have no left back. They have just let one go for nothing. Was he not better than not having one at all?

I do agree with your comments on Lai having no ambition. His real lack of his ambition is proven by persevering with Pulis. An ambitious chairman would build on what Pulis has done, move him aside, progress and improve. Pulis has reached his glass ceiling of tenth position.

A manager identifies the targets and the Board go and get them with negotiation and paying the correct price. Not the fault of Pulis that West Broms valuation of a player is way off from the selling club and another club comes in and snaps the player away and pays the correct price. Even with salaries/contracts West Brom never get in right - remember Super Kev - Shane Long and even the recently departed Fletcher who is on more cash at Stoke. Is that the fault of the manager?

Don't feel anything for Pulis either way but he's an employee and will say - god help us if he were to leave with our patched up squad. If you can't see that - take a visit to Spec Savers! Lets just hope Rondon can score against Bournemouth - even one of three sitters! Defoe will get one chance and most likely score. That's the difference - it's called quality!

Quality is not a free bottle of piss water before the game setting back our rich Chinese chum - 10K at most!

[Johnny on the spot 1]

Where's are players we are signing this week ?

[vikingwarriorking]

Dear Viking,

You are of course invited to your opinion and I get where you're coming from. But the same things have been said about the club for the last 4 years. There are some posters who swore they'd never come back because we were doomed; some who said we'd finish bottom, some who've said we'd be down before Xmas, etc., etc.

None of these things have come to pass. Now, no one could disagree that the club is not in the best shape but a shambles? An annual shambles? Really? An annual shambles wouldn't end up being 10th in the most competitive league in Europe. Not the best I'm keen to add before people jump up and down, but the most competitive. So, who is getting things right or wrong at the club?

Of course one season it may come to pass that we don't get away with having a tough gritty determined team playing to a defensive system that frustrates a lot of teams but can't handle most of the top six - but that's how Pulis keeps us up and that's how the club makes it's money. I don't know if we'll stay up but I suspect there are very few managers who are a better bet, as it were, at doing so - at least managers who are free. As to the money we need to spend, yep, let's try and spend some of the 40m million but I have no doubt the club are not prepared to spend silly money at a time when everyone else is.

I have to add, that it is of course, the hope that kills.

I respect your comments- they are well made & I admit to a pessimism & scepticism about the future.
Our form post-Xmas was relegation form- our friendlies against our peers all ended in defeat. I think TP does a great job with the resources but I think we will run out of road- the teams around us have strengthened and we have an untried Egyptian CH & Rodriguez who may be a find but it isn't anywhere near enough.
I hope you are right and I am a moaning minnie .
You keep hoping - I'll keep despairing - the results will be the same but I'm @ least readying for the worst- & I have my 6-1 bet for relegation for cold comfort and will be happy not to collect - very happy.
But like you and like us all my heart and soul belongs to the Baggies!!!

[Whicka_Mon]

I tell you what then give me some money. I won't spend it then i'll blame you for not spending it. That is what your saying.


As far as me going to specsavers. I would have carried Shane Long to Hull naked for what we sold him for. How was that deal not getting it right? I suppose the Berahino deal was wrong as well or flogging Greening for more money than he was worth or Curtis Davies or Enzo Maresca. The list is endless of great deals this club has got for players. Saying three players and then making sweeping statements about the club getting it never getting it right is just ridiculous.
You will need to prove Fletcher is on more money at Stoke or I ay believing ya. Maybe he didn't fancy running up hills all summer.
Quality doesn't have to cost loads of money Vardy cost Leicester £1m

[Johnny on the spot 1]

I tell you what then give me some money. I won't spend it then i'll blame you for not spending it. That is what your saying.


As far as me going to specsavers. I would have carried Shane Long to Hull naked for what we sold him for. How was that deal not getting it right? I suppose the Berahino deal was wrong as well or flogging Greening for more money than he was worth or Curtis Davies or Enzo Maresca. The list is endless of great deals this club has got for players. Saying three players and then making sweeping statements about the club getting it never getting it right is just ridiculous.
You will need to prove Fletcher is on more money at Stoke or I ay believing ya. Maybe he didn't fancy running up hills all summer.
Quality doesn't have to cost loads of money Vardy cost Leicester £1m

Hi Whicka
I agree with a lot of what your saying but quality cost money as it does in all walks of life out of football , Vardy was an exception turned out an really great bargain , as did our very own Regis , but they are the exceptions not the norm ,

[WBA123]

Hi Whicka
I agree with a lot of what your saying but quality cost money as it does in all walks of life out of football , Vardy was an exception turned out an really great bargain , as did our very own Regis , but they are the exceptions not the norm ,

I disagree with that actually, in football terms at least. I see a lot of over inflated prices for average players. On the flip side I think there's great value out there, especially in the lower leagues. Gareth McCauley cost us nothing, Dawson cost us £500k from Rochdale. John Stones cost Everton £200k from Barnsley, Joe Hart cost Man City £500k from Shrewsbury. Harry Kane cost Spurs nothing. Mahrez cost Leicester £400k. Coutinho cost Liverpool £8m and they're talking about selling him for £120m.

There are gems out there, they just need to be found.

[Whicka_Mon]

Hi Whicka
I agree with a lot of what your saying but quality cost money as it does in all walks of life out of football , Vardy was an exception turned out an really great bargain , as did our very own Regis , but they are the exceptions not the norm ,

Totally agree mate . Al just keeps banging on about Bournemouth, Defoe over and over again. The cold hard fact is Quality is not a thing Pulis looks for in a player.
All players cost virtually nothing at some point in their career. Leko has more quality in his standing foot than McClean has in both so did Gnabry and Sess. But McClean runs about a lot so he gets the nod.
The club should be commended for where it is and what it has cost to get there. No sugar daddy it had just stood on it's own two feet. Everything this club has achieved has been earned on the field.Not being slagged off by it's own supporters for not spending fortunes on average players just because every other club does.
If I was a player I wouldn't sign for a club who's manager has defined me as a scrap of food, left over that nobody else wants.

[Whicka_Mon]

I disagree with that actually, in football terms at least. I see a lot of over inflated prices for average players. On the flip side I think there's great value out there, especially in the lower leagues. Gareth McCauley cost us nothing, Dawson cost us £500k from Rochdale. John Stones cost Everton £200k from Barnsley, Joe Hart cost Man City £500k from Shrewsbury. Harry Kane cost Spurs nothing. Mahrez cost Leicester £400k. Coutinho cost Liverpool £8m and they're talking about selling him for £120m.

There are gems out there, they just need to be found.

All good points.

[9goals2hattricks3pen]

Dear Viking,

You are of course invited to your opinion and I get where you're coming from. But the same things have been said about the club for the last 4 years. There are some posters who swore they'd never come back because we were doomed; some who said we'd finish bottom, some who've said we'd be down before Xmas, etc., etc.

None of these things have come to pass. Now, no one could disagree that the club is not in the best shape but a shambles? An annual shambles? Really? An annual shambles wouldn't end up being 10th in the most competitive league in Europe. Not the best I'm keen to add before people jump up and down, but the most competitive. So, who is getting things right or wrong at the club?

Of course one season it may come to pass that we don't get away with having a tough gritty determined team playing to a defensive system that frustrates a lot of teams but can't handle most of the top six - but that's how Pulis keeps us up and that's how the club makes it's money. I don't know if we'll stay up but I suspect there are very few managers who are a better bet, as it were, at doing so - at least managers who are free. As to the money we need to spend, yep, let's try and spend some of the 40m million but I have no doubt the club are not prepared to spend silly money at a time when everyone else is.

I have to add, that it is of course, the hope that kills.

There is one for me very important aspect where I consider us to be a shambles and that is providing me with some excitement, entertainment and anticipation for the new season.

[Roymit]

I respect your comments- they are well made & I admit to a pessimism & scepticism about the future.
Our form post-Xmas was relegation form- our friendlies against our peers all ended in defeat. I think TP does a great job with the resources but I think we will run out of road- the teams around us have strengthened and we have an untried Egyptian CH & Rodriguez who may be a find but it isn't anywhere near enough.
I hope you are right and I am a moaning minnie .
You keep hoping - I'll keep despairing - the results will be the same but I'm @ least readying for the worst- & I have my 6-1 bet for relegation for cold comfort and will be happy not to collect - very happy.
But like you and like us all my heart and soul belongs to the Baggies!!!

That's the spirit! And yes - we are both bonkers. Why else would we support this club?!