Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Baggies set to tie up Valero capture
Monday 18th August 2008, 11:30AM BST.
Albion are poised to wrap up the club record signing of Borja Valero – as phase one of a possible triple swoop worth more than £10m.
Reports from Spain inidicate that the £5million transfer of Valero is almost complete. The 23-year-old Real Mallorca midfielder may arrive in England for a medical as early as today.
The Baggies still hope to follow up the signing with the captures of Argentine striker Oscar Trejo, also from Real Mallorca, and China captain Zheng Zhi from Charlton.
Albion also remain keen on a third Mallorca star, Portuguese centre-back Nunes, but they could be priced out of a triple raid on the La Liga club.
The transfer of playmaker Valero appears to be close to completion, after the former Real Madrid trainee said farewell to his team mates on Friday. He was also left out of Saturday’s friendly against PSV Eindhoven.
Gregorio Manzano described the impending deal as an ‘open secret’ and confirmed that Valero is keen on a move. He is reportedly in advanced talks over a four-year contract worth more than £20,000 a week.
The 5ft 9in tall midfielder has played 36 times for Mallorca in La Liga last season including 17 starts, scoring four times.
Albion also remain keen on adding 20-year-old Argentine striker Trejo to their squad despite having an initial bid turned down.
Talks are ongoing with Charlton over Zheng, who is on his way back to London from the Olympics.
Nunes still remains in the Baggies’ sights, although Mallorca reportedly value the 31-year-old at as much as £10m.
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If we sign these players, then that’s just excellent, if we don’t, I think that we’ve got enough to stay up anyway.
I walked out of the Emirates on Sunday feeling very, very proud of my team and extremely confident that if we play like that against everyone below the top 4 we’ll definitely stay up.
How big were those seats by the way?!
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As if the Albion can possibly spend £10million in a week?!
This is amazing, just the fact that this has been put on the table!!
I walked out of the Emirates on Saturday very proud of my team and extremely confident that this squad we already have is good enough to stay up. Add more quality such as this, and we’re definitely pushing for mid table from that display Saturday!!
I know 1 performance doesn’t make a season, but I was extremely heartened by the performance, and from the support too, so let’s keep it up my fellow Baggie Boys (and girls)!!
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sounds like a good buy, if TM wants to spend £5m on him then so be it, I would prefer a proven striker and another centre back thats good in the air, however things are looking up, lets hope these deals dont take the usual albion time of 2/3 months and wrap them up quickly.
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Exciting times if any of these deals happen. We keep being linked to midfielders and the odd attacker, but not many defenders. We will never pay over the odds for a 31 year old defender, but I would like to see a defender added before the window closes, unless Mowbray has the intention of playing Zuiverloon at centre back.
We will have the midfield to supply, now all we need is the forward to finish!
Barnett for England anyone???? hahaha
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nedball-we played well mate,but it was saturday, lol
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value him for 10 million at 31 years old! jeez we cudda got Deco for 8 million!
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I think we gave a good account of ourselves Saturday, think the acid test will come Saturday, we need to be beating teams like everton.
If we get this chap then great, apparently there are a few london clubs sniffing around him too.
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I think we need these signings as we do not currently have the depth in our squad to be able to mix it up in games. They can definatley take confidence from the game on sat but the real test as to how far we have come will be this weekend coming
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1 nedball,,i agree after the arsenal game we have to feel confident on staying up,i thought kim and barnett were superb and hope hoefs display was just one of those days…if supa mow gets the players he wants in then we could quite easily over achieve this season and surprise everyone,,love our style under mow its a great time to be a baggie……PLAYING IN THE PREM THE MOWBRAY WAY,,IN STYLE OF COURSE,,OOOOOOOOOOH YES.
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1. You think you’ll survive without further signings?! So deluded it’s funny! Can’t wait for the next few weeks as your lot get drubbibg after drubbing. Bouce Bouce
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Valero will be a great signing. The kind of quality we need at the albion to help establish us as a premier team once and for all. As with trejo does anybody know anything about him or seen or heard anything? I know Valero was said to be similar to iniesta and alot of big clubs have wanted him in the past. A real madrid player in his early days so he has been developed the right way. Exciting times at west brom. Meite pleased me and i think him and barnet will do well as season goes on. Although i want 4-4-2 and think cech is a better player than robinson therefore him playing in his natural role at left back i think robsinson played better and would be unfair to replace him. Hope zuivi is good as i havnt seen anythin of him and we do need a decent right back. Hoef didnt impress. But good result. What are peoples vies on miller? he promised a new and improved player this season i personally think he looked alot more lively.
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Hope we sign Valero & Trejo But 10m is to much for a 31 year old. But can still see someone else jumping in at the last min. So just keeping my feet on the ground till its a done deal.
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Nedball, Did you fall asleep in the Emirates mate, coz everbody else left Saturday afternoon, must of been a good day lol
With the above transfers I will remain tight lipped until they are official.
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signing these players wud b world class!!
but as nedball sed we av enough anyway i feel 2 stay up without these players being added 2 the squad!
wiv these new faces we could be aiming 2 finish top half of the table
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1. Nedball, not only big but obviously very comfy since you stayed over night!
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Thought we looked good the weekend, with these new boys on the way the future looks very rosy.Defo need a forward, a CB, and a defensive midfielder.I really am proud to be a Baggie right now, we seem to be making a real go of things.Bring on the toffee,s.
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I spose you all know how good these players are then?
Nah I reckon you’ve just looked em up on football manager.
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1 NEDBALL,agree with what you said,we have got plenty to look forward to,robbo was unlucky with hes cleared shot off the line,,we deserved the draw but we can take plenty of positives and if mow signs the players hes after we could even over achieve this season and surprise afew im sure,the futures looking great and the football great to watch,,i thought kim and barnett were superb and hoef hopefully just had a off day,,,PLAYING IN THE PREM THE MOWBRAY WAY,,IN STYLE OF COURSE,,OOOOOOOOOH YES..
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We’re all getting carried away. Mid-table? Come on, get real! With the addition of thse players and at least two more, we may, repeat may, avoid humiliation. The way some people talk you’d think we gave Arsenal a match. If they’d had their shotting boots on it would have been 4 or 5 nil. And that’s from a lifelong baggies fan.
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To everyone who pointed out my stupidity….I thank you!! ha ha!
No wonder the Mrs was so pee’d off with me, if I got lost in the ground for an entire day!!
I think the 7am ciders from Saturrday might still be in the system ;-)
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17:LCW
Your players are that unknown many of them don’t even feature on Football Manager, although Gary Breen & Craddock got a look in back in 1953 version
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17 Elsie.
How many times had you watched Vokes before you signed him? Didn’t stop you coming on your own site to say what a great signing he was did it.
You and 10 wolf are so bitter and twisted in your jealousy that it makes me a bit sad for you, except that I’m too happy at the moment.
As for these signings, great if they come in. Can’t see TM signing a 31 year old CH at all, never mind for 10 mill. Wouldn’t be surprised to see one come in that we’ve heard nothing about.
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valero sounds decent, hope we get the striker aswel, we need one! although ish and bednar did ok i thought.
i felt sorry for ish cos he realy is’nt a loan striker, but workd hard and if he could learn the offside rule he could cause teams problems!
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10. Bouce??? Dummy.
This would be a superb signing and just shows we’re going to the next level… Think it’s down to all the ‘bouce boucing’.. ha ha we’ve been doing builing up a shed load of cash and now we’re spending wisely to establish as a premier league team.
Survival this year, UEFA cup next!!!!
Also the gap by the END of the season between us and wolves will be HUGE!!!! Bye bye our once enemies……
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WOLF
Yeah we got a real drubbing against one of the best teams in Europe didn’t we? We conceded one at the Emirates, you muppets conceded two at Home Park in your first game! And you think you’re going up this season…so deluded it’s funny!
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Does anybody know what the song is called when we (Albion) score at home it sounds like the crashing of symbols.
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I’m sorry, but its true, how can you be excited when you’ve never heard of these players little own seen them play. False hopes. Big gamble.
Wolves can carry on signing the likes of Michael Kightly for 20,000 where you spend 3 million on Luke Moore! Loving it.
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Good news – Argetina just beat Holland in the Olympic Football. Zuiverloon is returning!!!
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Has ANYONE who has commented above actually seen these players play?
If not, why are they going to be excellent purchases?
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Trejo played for Boca Juniors before joining Real Mallorca. HE scored in his only game for Boca and was describesd as a hot prospect by the Boca Manager at the time and by the Mallorca boss who signed him. He would be a great siging but I feel he may be tempted by bigger clubs
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19) i dont think we are getting carried away just optermistic, wasn’t aware there was something wrong with that. As a wise man once said aim for the stars and you may at least hit the ceiling.
as for saturday i thought we played well could easily have got tonked after conceeding so early, and every game will not be as difficult as arsenal away,
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Thought you boys did very well on Sat. And I loved the strip!!! Good luck to you – see you next season!!!
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Why did he only start 17 games? Seems odd if rated at £5m.
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Cantello Champions
A wolf in sheeps clothing maybe???
If not maybe maybe his the grumpy drunkard from Father Ted. If your a baggy cheer up, if your a wolf, grow up.
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Sorry to sound negative but Saturdays match highlighted a real need to strengthen our squad.Barnett doesn’t look quite ready yet for the prem Brunt not enough pace to hurt prem teams.Look at the bench 3/4 players couldn’t get into our championship team -loaned out to lower league teams.Message to BURFMIESTER you promised us signings last week get them in a good start to the season is essential 4-5 needed
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Elsie and WOLF ect- why on earth are you trying to comment on this transfer ??
Yes I have seen Valero – and he is class. Nunes is also top draw – but £8 mill for him would be too high, and Trejo is highly rated across europe and is being watched by a host of top clubs.
Your signings are doing well in the CCC – so why not enjoy that instead of making yourselves look foolish talking about big boy football !!
Full credit to JP for workingon these transfers – for a club with no investment we aint doing too bad are we ??
Having seen our spirit and determination on saturday I think we are just a couple of signings away from a great first season in the prem. I disagree with baggiebirder- I thought Barnett was fantastic -and looked great with Meite. Hoef looked out of sorts and Zuivi will probably go straight into the team. but everyone else did really well.
Needless to say – LOVIN IT !!!!
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Valero is absolute class, have a friend who lives most of the time in mallorca. They are all gutted he`s going. But the big rumour over there is that Liverpool want him and he wants Liverpool. Benitez has been a fan for some time.
Sorry to disapoint lads but thats where he`s going.
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35 – Barnett was amazing on Saturday. Both he, and Meite looked very good….as did Carson too.
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19 at least Elsie has the bottle to put his name to his posts… you just hide behind a made up albion name.
There are always loads of wolves fans posting on here with made up albion names – but never at the same time as laughed at wolf and ray the wolf… strange that !
If you can’t say what you think without hiding then naff off back to your own site where you can moan as normal.
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Baggiebirder, i thought Barnett was outstanding, not sure what game you watched but not many get the better of Adebayor, also Ish probably had one of his better games for us, did you see him win any headers last year for me he won every header Saturday and I honestly think he’s worked on that side of his game.
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Thanks Lads for KP.
What a BIG MISTAKE you made letting him go..lol
Thanks Again..
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Swapping Mallorca for Sandwell eh – surely not!!!
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35) What the hell was you watching? Barnett was our best player + had Adebayor in his backpocket.
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Whatever happens,it shows that Albion are serious about one thing-building a squad of young,top quality players.TM knows exactly what he’s doing.We have the potential to stay up this season,which means next year these lads will all have premiership experience,and will have gelled together,knowing each other’s game.It makes the mouth water!
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Quote from another paper:
‘Valero is expected to finalise his move some time this week having flown into England yesterday to formalise the move and undergo a medical.’
It also mentions his wish to join a teamn that plays such an attractive style of football, and apparently he’s agreed to a 4 year deal, doubling his current wages to £20k / week.
Just what I’m reading, we’ll see if it’s true or not soon enough I suppose…………..
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I guess one more win and the dingles will be celebrating winning the league…..again
Do you lot never get tired of wiping the egg off you collective faces???
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41-no problem-we all know he can score at your lower level,but wouldn’t be able to hack it with the big boys.As long as you’re all happy down there.
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43. Absolutely right Barnett was very impressive and he’s getting better all the time. A lot of people have discounted him as not premiership quality for reasons I can’t fathom, maybe because he isn’t flashy. However the truth is he’s a proper defender and still very young.
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H.B Perhaps I’m being overly critical of Barnett the whole team had a shaky start.Second half performance much more confident and competent .The lad has clearly got potential to be a top c.b.
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A very understrength arsenal. Like the pompey game last season you did play well but were no threat apart from one bit of shocking arsenal defending. Hoefkens looked horribly out of his depth and greening done little apart from that I think everyone had a fair game but a loss is not a good result although everyone was expecting a white wash. I think a full strength Arsenal would of taken you too pieces. How bad was Adebayor? Greedy aswell.
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Barnett and Kim looked class on Saturday, Miller worked hard and caused Arsenal problems and Carson gives me a lot more confidence than Deano. We sometimes looked light in the middle of the park even though we were playing with five and I think that’s because Brunt and Morrison are not center midfielders. If we can sign Valero (and Zhi) and once we get Koren back we’ll be much stronger in the middle. Morrison can then be moved out wide. Hoef was poor but I expect Loon to go straight in on Saturday. Meite coped well considering he’s only been with us for a week. My only other wish is for one more forward to come in before the end of the month. If this happens we’re going to have a great squad playing some of the best football in the division.
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Barnett and Meite were top draw on Saturday
I thought Miller and Kim also stood out
Gona be ace when we clinch these signins :D
Asolutely loving it
Boing Boing
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Ah – following my observation in post 39 that laughed at wolf is never around when a dingle pretends to be a baggie – suddenly we do have baggiebirder and laughed at posting after each other – strange huh ??
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41 RE. KP
JUST A REMINDER
YOU’RE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP MY FRIEND
THERES’A A N OCEAN GAP BETWEEN THE CHAMPIONSHIP & THE PREMIERSHIP AS YOU SHOULD KNOW.
NEED I SAY MORE…
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35
Which game were you watching Barnett was very solid at the back. Brunts passing was’nt at best at times but showed improvement as match went on he’ll be OK. Rest assured. Hey be a littlr bit more positive we’re a very good team something to look forward to. At last.
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Think we were nervous at first but settled, would agree if Arsenal had their shooting boots on it would have been at least 3-0.
Still we have a good chance this week with Everton.
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50 LW.
Or should I say Cantello Champions or perhaps Baggiebirder, how do you have time for all these names with your big financial wheeling and dealing? Oh yeah, no lottery today is there. You may have missed it although I don’t see how as you spend more time on this site than me, Bomber, Happy and TWB put together. We had the same number of players missing as Arsenal. Yes our missing players aren’t as good as theirs, we know that but it’s all relative. A bit like three wins against no hopers.
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Valero Good player in Spain but like Spanish wine not all travels well. Just by the way Arsenal acording to their manager were missing seven first choice players on sat. Still the the result was good.
Up The Wolves
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54..sure thats why you scored ZERO on sat and are bottom already….lol
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37 Southbank Barmyarmy
Liverpool have not got the money to buy any more
players,thats why they are trying to off load
Alonso to generate funds,they already have to
many midfeilders.
“If Valero wants to go and sit on the bench at
Liverpool then thats his problem.
If he joins us then he will play every week
and the fans will love him!
With a midfeild 4 of VALERO,KOREN,GREENING,and
MORRISON then the Albion would have one of the
best midfeilds outside the top 4.
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59.KP you obviously can’t read, get your facts straight we arn’t bottom get an adult to have a look for you. As for all the other jealous Dingles haven’t you lot learnt to keep it shut yet? How many times do you have to end up with egg on your faces before you learn? Actually keep all the negative posts coming because the more you lot seem to write about us trying to belittle us the better we seem to do. Remember last summer, rats, sinking ships equals CHAMPIONS!!!!!!! No chance of signing Valero I hear SouthBank say, watch this space you mug!
Boing Boing
PREMIER LEAGUE
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17.
These players are very good, not going to give too much away because if we dont sign them it will be a downer however Valero for sure if premiership quality, Trejo up and coming he will be there or there abouts.
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60-Don’t forget Kim was excellent saturday,Zheng could soon be here-and a guy named Tex (Ronaldinho’s old mate)will soon be back.Spoilt for choice!
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17.
I wont give too much away just incase we dont get this players however Valero is surley premiership quality and Trejo isnt far off.
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KP.
Have you you seen the league table, & when are
you back at school?
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ah the wolves signing chris whatsisname and were going 4 quality players and it feels so good
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Obviously I haven’t made much of an impact up to now, despite many many posts for at least two seasons. Sorry to tell you guys but I’m Baggie through and through. My first game was in ’64/’65 – we played Northampton Town, and I’m pretty certain it was in the old first division.
I just remember the first season in the premiership. If memory serves didn’t we play the Vile at home? If I recall correctly we were narrowly beaten but played well. Today I’m getting deja vue.
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this is albion we r talkin about they always do sumthing 2 make it hard 4 themselves!
il be suprised if JP gets these “3 or 4″ new signings in! they dnt mind payin the transfer fee but we will neva compete until we spend on the wages!
gr8 performance saturday but lets not get carried away like the wolves fans always do! (cuz uno wot happens 2them lot) BOING BOING !!
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67. Man Utd was first 0-1then leeds H 1-3. Next season in Prem Bburn A 1-1 then Vile H 1-1..
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trejo played two minutes for boca but has been a key figure in breaking mallorca into europe.however valero has been mallorcas key player last season but did not play as much as liked because of a family bevirment and was on many a times called up to real madrids 1st team and often on the bench.As you can tell i have reaserched all these players and now know almost everything about them like to know anything else just ask ill behappy to help.
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Well I hope this happens, but i’m not going to start counting any chickens or players for that matter until they are safe n’ sound at the Hawthorns
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Just a suggestion on Hoefkens.
Rightly or wrongly, it seemed to me he was told by Mowbray to sit close to Barnett to occupy the space in between centre-back and full back where Adebayor makes so many penetrative runs.
Obviously, being so narrow leaves an ocean of space out wide and probably explains why every probing Arsenal attack came down our right.
Whilst Hoefkens didn’t have a great game, I’d say the responsibility for a lot of the stuff down our right lay as much with Cech as it did for Hoefkens. But the lad was out of position.
Saturday was really pleasing, but you forget how biased towards the top 4 the national media is.
Every time Adebayor went through, Andy Gray hailed a “superb run”, the move where Miller went through was “poor defending”!! Typical!!
We’ll just have to prove them wrong!!
Also, how enjoyable to see Stoke concede from 2 set-pieces!!!
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Still stuns me that wolves fans have the audacity to say ANYTHING about the albion.They limped along last season, not making the playoffs and yet they try and criticize the CHAMPIONS? We held Arsenal 1-0 at the emirates in the first game of the season…a game that everyone thought we would get hammered in. Dont forget WE didnt have a full strength side and after an initial shock we had a good go in the second half and were unlucky not to equalize.
We are talking about spending 10 million this week…something the wolves can only dream of…so a suggestion to all of our dingle friends…we are ok…just concentrate on your own team. We have to think about playing the likes of chelsea, man u and liverpool. You are not even a second thought to us so please stop trying to remind us that you are there.Its like an annoying fly that wont go away and we have swatted you so many times over the last few seasons its getting embarrassing!
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KP
You’re a nut.
If you look at the league tables and if you can understand them you will see that we are in 17th. place andf not bottom.
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41:
No problem mate, enjoy SuperKev while you can – hope he can do for you what he did for us!
50:
We had several players out too – Robert Koren in particular was greatly missed
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why do the wolves fans always slag off teams doing better than them.they always live in the past everything they have done and acheaved.is the past.i,m a baggies suporter but still hpoe wolves do well.
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57 got it wrong mate im a realistic BAGGIE
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Ok as some people keep pointing out Arsenal were under strength but even that side on Saturday are a team capable of finishing in the top 4 of the premiership, none of you would bet against them! Just because we didn’t take the hiding some of you thought you think Arsenal were rubbish. You can’t have it both ways you idiots! As for being under strength, remember Albion were without Robert Koren who is vital and his absence upset the balance of the team. Also no Luke Moore, no Neil Clement or Gianni Zuiverloon.
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we definately need a good striker who is quick and as skill. and an attacking midfielder who can break defences with ease. we have a lot of good players in our squad but half way thru the season they tend to fall back a bit, and when the pressure is on towards the end of the season they play their hearts out. ive sat at the hawthorns and watched us play the best football ever, and ive sat at the hawthorns and watched a bunch of no hopers. if we pull together as a team every week we will get a top 10 finish for sure. cmon u baggies
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Well ‘Nedball’ Did you really stay in the ‘Emirates Stadium’ all Saturday night?
‘Nedball’ said:- I walked out of the Emirates on Sunday feeling very, very proud of my team and extremely confident that if we play like that against everyone below the top 4 we’ll definitely stay up.
The game was played on Saturday lunchtime after all!
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67. ermm no mate our first season in the premiership we played manchester united away where we lost 1-0 to a solsjkaer goal with mccinnes getting sent off. sort it out haha
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Lets not kid ourselves. Arsenal were a class apart on Saturday but we knew that anyway. Our second half showing showed a lot of promise and it was very encouraging. Still worried where the goals are going to come from though. I think mowbs will address this soon.
What is even more encouraging is how jealous our dingle friends are. They are absolutely green with envy. They simply cant get over that we are way superior than they will ever be. Jealous,jealous dingles.
LOVING IT!
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17.
These players are good done some looking up and i have a friend who is involved with west brom and they are good players no worries
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80 – I’m still there now bud!!
Decided to go back cos the seats were just soooooo comfy!
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ned, i,ll see ya in the supporters club before the game on saturday or sunday whichever day you guin aye boing boing
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Terry me old mucker,
I’ll be in the Hawthorns Pub on Saturday at about 12 SATURDAY, more than likely sat on the pool table nursing a hangover!!
For Bolton I’m going to be in ‘The Barnstormer Pub’ which is about 10 mins walk from the away end…..haven’t decided which day I’ll turn up for that one though as of yet….I’ll let you know.
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50. laughed at wolf
……….and an under strength Albion side too? Or did you not see that with your one eye lol? We were missing Koren, Teixeira, Moore, Zuiverloon, Clement all of whom would have been in the 16 so let’s not worry about players that were missing eh? Numpty!!!
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cantello what ya on about,are you one of them that go on that 5live radio program that just spout doom and gloom?if ya aint happy take back your season ticket,allong with the rest of you i get fed up every damn season ya att it.,who heard of korren kim texira?look how good they have been and will be,.AS FOR YOU WOLVES FANS….what has khightly done in 2seasons for you?in fact whats the team done?you lot can only dream of what albion have achieved
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Laughing stock – can’t have been that bad a result as you were predicting a 9-0 scoreline. Get back to the championship pages!!
BOING BOING!!
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