Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
- Shopping blogger Emma Iannarilli
Albion boss looks to the future
Monday 20th April 2009, 11:36AM BST.
Tony Mowbray has urged Albion to keep faith with his long-term vision after the Baggies moved to the brink of relegation with defeat at Manchester City.
The Baggies boss claimed he has the nucleus of a squad to compete in the Premier League and has called on the club’s board to let him press on with his team building.
Albion are nine points adrift of safety with five matches remaining after a 4-2 loss at Eastlands, and their relegation could be rubber-stamped in the next two weeks.
But Mowbray said: “If the powers-that-be have the patience to build and develop a team and give the club an identity of being an open, expansive, passing team and add the quality as we go along, I think we can go to these places and win matches on an even keel.
“I’ve no fears about them, because I think the way we’re asking them to play is the right way.
“I think there is a nucleus of players in our squad who are more than good enough to hold their own in the Premier League, but I think we are far from having all the pieces of the jigsaw together.
“Ultimately that’s why we’re not as solid as some teams, not as clinical as some teams.
“Yet you watch every week and see a team that doesn’t look out of place in the Premier League.
“I feel we’re not too far away from being a decent side in the Premier League but I only do what I believe is right and I will continue to do that.
“You won’t see an Albion team under me sticking 10 men behind the ball and just kicking it back to the opposition and saying ‘try to break us down.’
“That’s not the way we want to play. There are other teams in this league who play differently to us and have got more points, yet I genuinely feel we are very close to being a very good side in this league.”
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Quite right!
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Think Tony Mowbray is talking rubbish. Whilst we have quantity we do not have quality. Would rather have spent decent money and bought in 1 or 2 players who have had the experience in top flight football and Mr Peace needs to realise this and perhaps break the wage structureon these partuclar players, rather than get in 5 or 6 mediocre players which probably adds up the same wages. Yes we have competed in games, but Mowbray needs to address defensive errors, and perhaps stop passing the ball back and forth all the time. However, he will not budge on his so called philosophy.
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Yes Tone.
We like the style of play BUT getting men behind the ball may have kept us in the Premiership and that would have provided even more money to help with buying new players for next season.
Now, playing in the CCC next season, you won’t have more money to spend BUT crucially, you won’t be able to attract players of the quality you need as they will most likely prefer to play in the Premiership and get higher wages. It also causes further unrest at the club with players wanting to transfer out and back to the Prem. Fortune is one example. Signed on loan, he may just see his future somewhere else and he is just the type of player you need to keep.
Everything gets put on HOLD for another season!!
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Laudible sentiments Mr Mowbray but look at the league table. Most supporters hoped this season would be the one where we established ourselves as a premier league team and the ultimate responsibility for that not happening must fall on the manager and the Chairman. The managers ability not to buy premier quality players and the chairman’s failure to restrict the pay structure to a point where it is difficult to attract players of premier league quality are the reasons we are being relegated. We have been penny wise and pound foolish.
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Charlton
Nottingham Forest
Southamton
Leicester
Leeds
Watford
Sheff Wednesday
Norwich
I don’t want my club to end up like any of these. Only 8 months ago Mowbray was a god…over 100 goals, champions, FA cup Semi-final.
Stick by him and i am 100% sure he will get it right.
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2,PAULA I LOVE YOU XXXXXX BOINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
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im keeping the faith tony,aye boing boing we shall be back
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The ultimate insult was to hear the Stoke City fans singing ‘ Thats why you’re going down ‘ They can buy James Beattie ( 6 goals in 11 games ) in their first prem season, but WBA, after 4 years Sky Money/ 2 years parachute money ( £140 million ) cannot afford him ! Where’s all the money gone, as if we did’nt know !
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where’s the money gone..
SACK THE LOT NOW, WE ARE A JOKE!!!
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5- here here, excellent post
Whatever you think of Mowbray, it’s clear the players like him. If he goes, the likes of Greening, Koren, Morrison, Valero, Zuiverloon etc etc will be off right behind him.
Whatever you think fo those players, they are still of a higher quality than the ones we’d be able to replace them with, being a Championship club.
I’m not saying TM’s not made mistakes, but sacking him and ‘rebuilding’ would be absolute suicide…….something which the clubs mentioned by Exmouth found out to their cost when in a similar predicament. It’s taken our dear neighbours down the road 5 years to ‘rebuild’ since they were last up there.
I don’t think I can sum it up better than Bully did on the last thread, excellent post.
Distant Baggie, No1BaggiesFan (winner of most ironic posting name) and some of the other whinging anti-Mowbray brigade. I hear a lot of talk about his mistakes from you, but not so much of a solution to the problem or a more viable alternative.
Lets get behind them and carry a bit of momentum into next season.
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The fact of the matter is that last year we were the best side in the Championship. TM has added £23m to it, and we are now the worst side in the Premiership, by some distance, the table proves it.
We are still 1 point off our tally in 2002-03, when we had no money to compete in the Premiership.
Next year will be interesting. I think we will struggle to get in the play-offs. That to me would represent a failure, and re-iterate my view that TM has taken this side backwards because he does not have the foresight to change his tactics when necessary
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Seems there is split in the ranks with what to do with TM. I have to side with Exmouth & Warren. I cannot see how the club would benefit from sacking TM. I honestly believe that we have a hell of better chance of getting promotion with TM in charge and believe that we would be stepping backwards if we sold him. Different manager, different style, different players, it would be a big ask of any manager and we have players that fit the style we play and will be too good for the CCC. Keep the nucleus of what we have add Miller and Clem who will be back from injury and add another defender and forward and there is not too much wrong for the CCC. Yep, we have been let down this season, but this is the club that I love dearly and clearly believe that TM will get us back up next season.
It’s hard today because of what is happening down the road at the Custard Bowl but this time next season, could well be roles reversed.
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PLEASE!!
Paula and Terry Romeo Baggie.
GET A ROOM!!!!!!!!!!
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exmouth
nice to see you taking the p out of southamPton – was that a diliberate effort.
Agree. Mowbray has to be given time to show he has learnt. We gave Meggo the oportunity to learn and with a better financed club up at Bolton he has proved himself. The problem is the wage structure which has prevented us buying James Beatie and left us saddled with Craig Beatie instead.
The business plan is over cautious and over pessimistic – it seems that they planned to spend as if relegation was a certainty. Thus the self fulfilling prophecy is created top down. I wonder how much better the squad we could have assembled would have been but for a bit of ambition from those at the top.
Mowbray can only work with what he can buy and he can only choose from what the board will sanction.
He is not the perfect manager but I wonder who else could do better with the circumstances at the Hawthorns. And he has never moaned or been bitter – he just gets on with it. Well done Tony – I wonder how long before a new challenge attracts him away from here.
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taking luke moore out the picture (who is on £22.500 a week).
The baggies average wage bill is 8 grand a week.
how we think we are a prem team with that wage bill is beyond me.
Mowbray is not the one to blame, to me you have to speculate to accomulate. and Peace(the one everyone should blame) should know better,after all he is a business man.
We need to get him out.
In the long run we should have supported Thomson instead of megson when there was a power struggle.we might be looking at a different Albion
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sack this doughnut NOW, the bloke is so far devoid of the facts its un-true. thanks for last season. but you have proved your not capable of managing in the top flight. BYE BYE mugbray
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Back yo the fizzy pop league where you belong!
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The fact of the matter is that the people who control the club DO NOT CARE that we are relegated. The balance sheet adds up and that is all that counts. We have now tried to stay in the Premier League on enough occasions for the real fans to ask the questions: “Why have we not learnt from our previous mistakes?” “Why are we not stronger because of our previous experiences in the Premier League?” The answer is blindingly obvious; those in charge do not want us to stay in a division that is likely to cost them money and affect their profit margins. To them it is a business, to us it is a passion, until they are prepared to match that passion and belief we will always be destined to be the “nearly” team.
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stick with mowbray,
at least give him 12 games of next season
his first season in the premiership has been a failure but we should be confidet of him learing from these
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If you all remember, we tried to attract an investor last summer, but couldn’t. Thats why we havent spent millions i would say
I think it is easy to blame Peace for not putting up the money, but its always been clear he would rather have the club clear of any debt than risk it all on a real good go at the premiership, which ok we might feel is disappointing, but some managers might thrown there rattle out when a chairman says there isn’t much money available, but in fairness to mowbray he has just got on with it.
I have also been one of many of Mowbrays critics this year, due to some questionable tactics and decision making, and some players coming in that are just not up to it, but Mowbray has also taken us to Wembley twice, which is something i never thought i would see, being 21 and not around during the clubs best years, i have genuine excitement about where mowbray is taking us!
Okay, we are to be relegated but thinking back to our relegations under megson and robson, i was not this excited about what the next few years could hold for us. if we can keep the nucleus of good players that we have, and mowbray learns from his mistakes this year, i think we can be a good premiership team, thats just my views, but i think stick behind mowbray, and we will be fine in the long run!
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Well said Ant Lowe.
Stoke and Hull will go down if not next season then soon after, and the debts they’ve made will cripple them just as it’s done to Charlton, Southampton and others.
Competing in The Premiership is simply about having the cash to attract decent players. If you don’t have the cash you can risk it by borrowing. WBA chose not to do that, and in this financial environment, I think that’s entirely sensible.
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Please don’t read this as in anyway having a go at the Albion, but someone has just asked a question here “where did all the money go”. Living in Southampton this seems to be a generic question within football now, especially asked by fans whose clubs are not doing well and/or have financial difficulties. It’s also asked on BBC TV and Radio and on Talksport. The problem is that all the TV and Radio programs have been infiltrated by ex-players and they will not even attempt to answer that question, although they all know the answer. Go and take the time to wander down to the training ground or have a look at the players car park on match day, take a look at the Ferraris, Maseratis, Porches, Bentleys etc and that will answer your question. Simply the game is haemorrhaging money at every club and it’s going into the bank accounts of players who are picking up inflated salaries on the back of the rewards that the very top players and being paid, simply a drip feed, knock on effect. When a journeyman player such as Jay Bothroyd drives around in a Bentley you know there is something seriously wrong out there.
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Oh well never mind…………..
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It just gets better and better………..COME ON YOU WOLVES
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I’ve got my new season ticket and yes i back Mowbury 150%.BOING BOING
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mowbray is a joke, it shows how poor a manager he is if he’s only got one plan all the time, very predictable. not even the top teams play attacking passing football all the time they adapt to the game. good luck in the CCC lol.
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13 jeff, i hope its a bedroom,aye boing boing boinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
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jeff id sooner try n chat paula up than listen to these load of whingers,no doubt this time next year mowbury will be best manager in the world again,aye boing boing one tony mowbury
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There is a quite simple answer to the financial questions bieng asked- where would Jeremy Peace get said Millions of pounds from to compete in the trasnfer market? – borrow it or find a fairy god mother who could wave a magic wand and make us into Manchester City – and were they really that much better than us with all the cash they have spent?
I totally agree with the comment about stupid wages and average players with little international pedigree or even championship pedigree driving cars worth mkore than most of us would make in years.
This used to be a working class sport with local boys playing for local clubs.
This is now a busines where supply, demand and behind the scenes politics are more powerful than passion and fans voices.
My hats off to Peace and Mowbray for keeping the clubs feet on the ground – I accpet totally naive mistakes were made this year, tactics were flawed at times and some poor purchaes were made( which had they worked would have seemed inspired – texeira,brunt,morrison.
I am sad we will be going down but take heart that we will be around for many years and as a smaller club lets all hope we can “punch” above our weight given sound financial judgement and a growing skill level in our manager.
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Sorry Ant, but it isn’t “too easy” to blame Peace.
No serious Baggie would want to bankrupt the club by paying out silly money that’s not there; but we need a Board that’s ‘fit-for-purpose’ and we haven’t had one of those for years.
I do not believe it is possible to ‘play safe’ financially at a football club these days. Standing still actually means going backwards and I don’t want to follow Chalton and co into League One.
In my opinion supporters are too soft on Peace; he leads a merry dance and we all willingly step into line. What really happened last summer, does anyone really know what he put on the table?
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mowbray should be sacked now he asnt a clue.
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22 – Wise words indeed. Taking all of the recent TV money out of the game would be a blessing in disguise as its impact would be to reduce the wages of the players and other hangers on that you get around a club these days. I also totally agree about the pundits as well – its just the old boys network in action & no doubt they are all picking up a fat salary for peddling the same old nonsense that they used to come out with as players. Wouldn’t it be nice for one of the tv companies to have knowledgeable fans who’ve watched the game for years as pundits. Instead of that, we have Gazza wheeled out to talk rubbish – on the basis that he was a great player so that he must know what he is talking about. There’s much more sense talked on local sites such as this, by TRUE fans.
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the biggest problem with this team is we have no premier league experience in it, ok greening robinson but we went down from the premier with these players before, hull have brought in experience so have stoke , what do we buy valero, olson , zuiverloon , no experience, luke moore and valero cost combined nearly 8 million what a waste of money.
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well i see a team that is a million miles out of place in the premier league, thats why we are bottom, and if we were very close to being a very good team,then again we would not be bottom,we are not solid and clinical as other teams cos we have a lot of bad signings, that is down to you T.M. newcastle are second from bottom,they did the double on us,so what does that tell you? you talk rubbish
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Peace wont be getting anymore of my hard earned money , hope the wolves show peace how to become a premiership side.
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The Albion are the yo yo boys for a reason.Does not matter who the manager is.Have no clue about the boardroom stuff,but the commom denominator is Jeremy.
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to get better quality players does not mean that we have to be stupid and put our club at risk and ending up like leeds n forest etc we could of gambled a little bit more
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22 Southampton Wolf.
Having a go? If only some of our own fans were as realistic. I’m sure it’s the same on your site where we have financial experts that could run the club better and football experts that could manage the club better.
I understand your point, especially if you add the bloodsucking agents to the equation. The thing is that we as fans are as guilty. While complaining about players wages, we berate any chairman who is strong enough not to give in to them.
Perhaps the answer is for the powers that be, UEFA, FIFA, the FA or the Premier League to have the guts to bring in some form of salary cap. Yeah, I know, dream on. These people are milking the very same cash cow.
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Last season at the custard bowl they was shouting for micks head,there board stood firm. I hope our board backs TONY.WE WILL COME BACK THE FUTURES BRIGHT ITS BLUE AND WHITE.
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To all those TM knockers please name me another manager to lead us from the CCC, another Premiership club with no debt.
Short memories coupled with high expectation.
RAYTHEWIFF ARE YOU ANOTHER SOUTHBANKER !!
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I think Mowbray needs to stop playin fantasy football and get real it’s no good playin this style if you end up getting nowt out of games. Only the top four can afford the players to play this way and even they play the average’s game when they need to get a result…no not the albion it’s mowbray’s way or nothin…sick to death of the club, peace relying on fans loyalty for next season…sorry not this one.
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ok ok
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I used to be a big fan of Tony Mowbray, I’m sure he’s a decent bloke but his comments in the article above are just utter rubbish. We don’t look a like a premiership side, the league table doesn’t lie – we haven’t been good enough. We’ve won 6 games out of 32, that tells you all you need to know.
I think a lot of us got a bit ahead of ourselves at the beginning of the season going on about top ten and the rest of it and weren’t realistic – myself included.
Now we just have to go back to the drawing board.
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C’mon ladies and gents, dont give up hope yet! Woves Vs Albion: Main match on Match Of The Day next season. Yes I am a Wolves fan but desperatley want you to stay up. All the midlands teams deserve to be up there and show all them gooners and spurs fans how a real derby is played!
Best of luck
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All you haters need to hush your noise because half of you probably deserted the club after the last relegation when Robson left us with a squad of players that paid for the new one. A man came at that point unknown but with a vision to play football something we have not been custom to for many years. At the time of the appointment i did my research and found that no Hibs fan wanted him to leave finishing third in the league and never losing to celtic or rangers. My point is rome wasn’t build in a day and not every manager can be Arsene Wenger (even Fergie gets it wrong) but with time and a bit of money we will benefit from a youthful hungry team that we paid peanuts for. Our youth setup is already gaining recognition across the planet because of Mowbray’s philosophy trickling down the ranks. I have already renewed my season ticket because I am Albion till I die, but to say I will not give my money while’s Mowbray’s there is a total farce and your the people who we don’t want up there. As for wolves its funny how after losing 4 times and shipping 10 goals in a season they started to play good football and score goals, I wonder where they got from, good Football is the future I’ve tasted. I enjoyed the man city game even though we lost we had a good go and it was end to end stuff not robotic and boring.
Rant over LOYAL SUPPORTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Mowbray spent wisely in the Championship with the likes of Kiely, Hoefkens, Morrison, Koren, Brunt, Bednar and Miller. It was obvious though that we needed to build on this team to have a chance at the top level.
Unfortunately, when equipped with a slightly higher budget he has failed dismally. £3m+ each on the spine of a team in the shape of Carson, Meite, Valero and Moore is shambolic.
We have gone backwards and without a solid keeper and genuine partner for Olsson the Championship won’t be the easy ride that many expect.
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Rats and sinking ships. I wonder how many will manage to swim their way over to the SS Molineaux for a season before swimming back again next year.
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If Mowbray doesn’t have the baggies in the top 6 by Christmas, then I’m afraid he will be on his bike.He has to buy well in the summer, get rid of the died wood, which means most of the team and see if his pretty football can push for promotion again.It wont be so easy this time, because most teams have sust his pretty football out
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Good morning true baggie fans,22 i know wot you mean mate,i remember years ago we drew bournmouth away in the 3rd of the fa cup,as we where queueing to go in the bournmouth players had to drive past us into the ground,i couldent believe the top of the range cars 3rd division players where driving,former walsall player roger boli playing for bournmouth at the time drove past us in a porche,personalized number plates,i thought at the time how much are these players on, aye boing boing we lost 1-0
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41 paul,bet you,l be there when we top of the league,aye boing boing part time supporter
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45 baggie,me and my daughter already renewed ours too,happy days ahead in mowbury we trust aye boing boing keep the faith
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20 when peace tries to get an investor he overprices the club when he wants to buy the shareholders out he underprices the values the price funny that dont you think
peace out
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ELAINE I LOVE YOU XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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52 Elaine.
Of course Peace undervalued the club when buying shares, that’s business. Do you really expect him to say ‘I’m going to be fair and pay you more than I need to?’ Have you made an offer for the club? If not how do you know that he’s overpriced it when looking for investors? As far as I know this has never been made public. If he underprices it when selling it, the club would become an easy target for asset strippers. Is that really what you want?
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54, id like elaine to be an asset stripper aye boing boing over here love
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Ive renewed my ticket on the first day of trading.Look at the big picture for the first time in years we have good kids comming .We have a great manager who will learn from the mistakes.If you dont like go up the road to wolves or stoke.GET BEHIND THE TEAM.
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tm should be looking at his p45 by now
how much more of his lets try something new do you want.
we need a man in charge not messing around like a clown in a circus.
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To the people that think its time for a change. Just who else are we goin to get in & what different are they gonna do?? Who’s about? Ian Dowie, Chris Coleman, Gareth Southgate after he looses his job. U can bet we wouldn’t be seein 100 goals in the championship next year again, we would be playing average to boaring football & a new manager would probably do a no better if not worse job than mowbray at getting us back into premiership. The players would have 2 learn and re-adapt 2 a completeley different style again & that would effect the season. They practice our style right down to the academy (which is doing better than ever by the way)And lets be honest our players are not gonna fight & slog their way out of championship, they only know how 2 play their way out like last time. Mowbray will learn from mistakes, yes he should have replaced Phillips & Gera, yes he should have got experience in, yes he should have a plan B but he will learn and he was held back a great deal by penny pinching Peace 2 be fair 2 him! Peace prevented him from doing at least one of those 3 things mentioned above!
TM is right we are not far from being a damn good side in prem just a couple strikers & defenders in my view. And he is proven in championship. He is the man! Stick by him
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Terry Walsall Baggie..Not a part time supporter m8 i’m 40 years old and my first match was spurs at home in 76 we won 4-2 had a season ticket ever since and bin there when we’ve took a couple of hundred to some far flung place. Just had enough of being a laughin stock (and that’s from inside the footballing world) and the thought of this board avin anymore of my hard earned…no chance. Albion till i die m8..remember what we had when lucas was chairmen,,that’s what chairmen do to clubs rely on fans then bleed them dry.
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