Albion boss Tony Mowbray today insisted he will not sign a host of Premier League veterans if the club clinch promotion to the top flight.
Mowbray says planning is already under way for life among the English elite with potential targets already earmarked.
But, if promotion is sealed in the next week, Mowbray claims he is not planning to recuit a group of thirtysomethings for the sake of Premier League experience.
And he says he is ready to back his judgement again, even if it means bringing Premier League rookies to the West Midlands.
“We look for good players, whether they’ve played in the Premier League or not,” said Mowbray.
“Ultimately you get judged on the players you bring in and the results you achieve on the back of them. I would suggest there is a balance to be had there.
“There are areas of the team where you need experience, but there is also an aspect of trusting your judgement, looking at the talent of a player and believing he can produce whatever arena you put him into.”
35 Comments
This man just keeps on talkin sense.
A big ‘well done’ to JP for having the vision to bring this guy in.
What a great time to be a Baggie.
All together now’
“Running down the Brummie Road.. To see the Albion Aces!”
I said we are Albion,and we are going up the
mogga way,its great to be an Albion fan !!
We don’t want any last paycheque journeymen - another few of ToMo’s unknown diamonds will be just fine…. although has anyone else heard the rumour about Peter Crouch ??
I’ve heard it from two sources now that we are looking at bringing him in…. he will look like a stick of rock in our stripes…
I guess if we go up it will be silly season in the papers - I think TM will keep things close to his chest as per usual.
BEST OF LUCK TO WBA IF THEY GET THERE, STOKE TO, I HOPE WE ARE THE THIRD TEAM (WOLVES). I FEEL THERE ARE A LOT OF OVER THE HILL PREM PLAYERS TOUTING FROM CLUB TO CLUB A LOT OF THESE FORGEIN PLAYERS. AS A GB NATION WE NEED TO DEVELOP OUR OWN TALENT, GET THE KIDS FROM BEHIND THE COMPUTER BACK ONTO THE FOOTBALL PITCHES AND GIVE THEM A CHANCE STOP INMPORTING AVERAGE PLAYERS FROM OUTSIDE THE UK. WE NEED TO ENCOURAGE YOUTH TO GIVE THE HOME NATIONS A STRONG TEAM TO COMPETE AGAINST THE WORLD.
JAMIE LANYON HOLIDAY PARK SUNNY CORNWALL, KEEP YOUR EYE OUT FOR TRURO IN THE SOUTHERN LEAGUE NEXT SEASON, HIGHEST EVER POSITION BY A CORNISH SIDE, THEY ARE TRYING TO DEVELOP FOOTBALL IN CORNWALL AND NEED ALL THE SUPPORT THEY CAN GET.
Thats it for Phillips then?
All take notice of the good common sense Tony Mowbray is spouting.
I warm to him the more I hear his comments.
BOINGING TO THE PREMIERSHIP THE MOWBRAY WAY !
I cant wait to see who the targets are for next season !!!
WOOOOOOHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GOIN UP THE MOWBRAY WAY!!
Absolute genius! He’s already planning ahead. He’s gonna have another matermind storm of signings like last summer. You cant fault the guy. He’s like an emotionless football minded machine.
Just a genius!
COME ON TONY.SAVE OUR KEV.HE DESERVES IT
LET GET THERE FIRST!WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT IF MR PHILLIP’S DOESN’T GET A CONTRACT,AFTER ALL HIS GOALS DID HELP.
Why on earth would Peter Crouch come to the Albion?? JP would not pay the massive transfer fee! JP would not pay his wages!
Peter Crouch has much bigger clubs he wants to go to!
Dudley Wolf. Read the piece AGAIN! Mowbray won’t SIGN any veterans! Phillips has been with us for a while now. I think he scored some goals against your club!!!!!!!!!!!
i guess we can leave it ti tomo, he weighs it all up.
Does this mean we shan’t get Kevin Campbell back from Cardiff? There’s also a small chubby boy plays for Hull named Windass could still do a job. He’s only 38. Sheringham, now there’s a name to conjure with. I can see what’s going to happen, we shall only bring in kids like Bednar, Miller, etc. who only score goals and can’t hold up the ball or play it back to defence. Will I be able to doze through a match ever again? We need to be told.
jeff (11)
READ it again jeff, Kev is OUT OF CONTRACT, that means it will cost the Albion MONEY to keep him,and I think he comes into the catagory of VETERAN (Bless Him). He’s has been a fantastic player & goal scorer for all the clubs he has played for, and, yes, he has scored a few against the WOLVES, thats what he is paid for. Will he be playing for Albion next season? READ THE HEADLINE jeff!!
There were some Wolves posts on here going on about us signing no-marks that no-one had ever heard of. Well, bring it on. Under Brian Little (worst Albion manager ever?) we were a rest home for Premiership has beens. Andy Townsend was probably the worst signing we have ever made. Under TM and JP we have done some inspired business and I trust them to do the same in the summer. And we haven’t even seen the likes of Kim properly yet.
I am almost as happy as Happy right now.
Paris Baggie
I remember Townsend getting injured in the warm up, £230,000 well spent!!
OMG , forgot all about Andy Townsend .
There must be worse than him lol
A bit unfair that about Brian little - He didn’t get a lot of support from the board. To me the worst manager was John Giles - the second time around when he came back and immediately sold our big front 2 of Regis and Thompson and replaced them with Garth Crooks and Varadi and we later went down.
Great news. I don’t think TM would entirely rule out older players if they have the right attitude to the game i.e. Strachan at Leeds but he won’t bring in over the hill journeymen i.e. Lee Hendrie. TM has forgotten more about football than the rest of us on here ever knew and I’m not one to go over the top in my praise of managers.
Blimey your manager talks some sense doesn’t he? I think you’ve got a good un there, hope your board and fans back him to the hilt, especially if you have a few dodgy results next year, which will inevitably happen in the Premier. I’d be interested to see what Albion fans think he’d do if Celtic came a-calling, because TM’s stock must be very high at the moment, especially if (when) you win the title?
Townsend was a total, utter disaster, which he at least had the decency to admit when he was presenting the ITV highlights show a while back. I honestly don’t think I’m being harsh about Brian Little. My main memory about him was his reluctance to pick Maresca. At one home game (can’t remember which), we were absolutely terrible for 70mins, then after 20mins of chanting from the Baggies fans, Little finally puts Maresca on and he changes the game. The sponsors announce him as man of the match, and I remember Little standing on the touchline shaking his head. The bloke was on a totally different planet. If it wasn’t for Megson he would have taken us down, no question.
All these bad memories make me even more grateful for Mowbray…
Think Ron Saunders must be one of our worse ever managers
Remember the Maresca game - I was one of the sponsors who made him man of the match. I’ve still got tickets from the season ticket that year - I vowed not to go to a game until Little was sacked. I stuck to my guns. Worst manager since Gould. ToMo is the best manager since Johnny Giles.
omg 17 john hartson
Blackpool: agree re: Saunders. It was him who insisted on selling Bully after he’d scored a few goals in a team that was already relegated. But I still think Little takes some beating.
God we’ve had some bad managers. Let’s be grateful for what we’ve got today.
Bomber (16): that was when Townsend tried to break into a trot. If he was a horse he would have been shot.
Bad Managers?
Remember “DENNIS SMITH”
WISE MAN THAT TONY MOWBRAY.
Gould was the worst manager I can remember.
Little was not far behind.
Saunders was a bit of a disaster as well.
TM is the best manager we’ve had since Giles in my opinion, with the possibility that he will go down as our best ever manager.
14 Dudley Wolf - stop picking at straws. KP is already at our club and has proved himself both with his skill and application. TM & JP both want to get him on a new contract. However, in principal, their policy is to buy young and hungry.
25 Paris.
I may be wrong but I think Ron Saunders was desperate to bring in Don Goodman. As was normal in those days Saunders was told to create his own funds and we weren’t exactly overun with saleable assets (not Saunders fault.) Wolves wanted Bull and Thompson, we got Goodman. They were depressing times but I don’t think you could blame Saunders or Dennis Smith, neither were bad managers. The fault lay at board level, as usual our practices were 30 years out of date.
Bully: I’m sure you’re right about the way the club was run in those days, but if Saunders had really wanted to keep Bull he could have stood his ground. Anyway, if we hadn’t sold him, there’d be no banter on these pages as Wolves wouldn’t exist. And of course we wouldn’t want that.
I agree about Denis Smith. I reckon he didn’t do that badly for us and he got a raw deal from Tony Hale. Brian Little remains my all time worst Albion manager (even worse than Gould).
Good for You Tony Mow don’t do a Bryan Robson and sign a dozey Kevin Campbell etc anyone heard rumours about a certain MR ADEL TAARBAT from Tottenham Hotspur linking him to The Hawthorns????????
(14) themobrayway
YOU JUST REPEATED WHAT I HAVE ALREADY SAID!! PHILLIPS IS an Albion player until his contract runs out,if they want to keep him, they will have to BOW to HIS demands, The man has two years left, at most at the present level, GOOD LUCK TO HIM, HE DESERVES EVERYTHING HE GETS OUT OF THE GAME, Kevin has done well, I am an admirer of his,WHO ISN’T? But will ALBION PAY? That is the Question.
I think those debating the worst manager ever are having a major case of amnesia if they do not think that the Bobby Gould era was the lowest point of our recent history and that he was the worst manager we have ever had. I agree about the short comings of the rest but just jog your memory!!
We now have the best manager since the first Atkinson era - let’s home we can keep him because if we can we have a real chance of becoming an established premier league club - if we can get the point we need (Doubt is a by product of 40 years following the Baggies!).
I remember the albion fans passing a coffin round when “booby” gould was here… A bit over the top but i think he got the message…. To really appreciate Gould’s football you needed a seat at the back of the BRE just to see the ball.
Ron Saunders didn’t rate bull and there was friction between them.