Albion chairman is not for turning
Friday 22nd May 2009, 2:12PM BST.
Albion chairman Jeremy Peace explains why he won’t change the way he runs the club to chief sports writer Martin Swain.
Two times up and three times down – but like another leader who would brush aside the critics, Jeremy Peace is not for turning.
Instead the Albion chairman has his mind set on doing the same things only better, as he now prepares for another crack at the Championship.
Peace is more than happy to back his manager Tony Mowbray’s quest to achieve his goals, with football for the romantics.
But the club’s majority shareholder and first officer is demanding Albion become ever more efficient and pragmatic, in providing Mowbray with the tools for the job.
Peace is a man who divides opinions around the Hawthorns, sometimes in the same individual.
His record in advancing the club and giving it a Premier League infrastructure is widely applauded, but his insistence on Albion always living within their means is blamed by some for his personal score moving to 3-2 in favour of relegations over promotions.
The chairman said: “I accept the criticism of me personally. It’s part of football.
“But I think that for every one of those, you’ve got 100 people who would say we are running it properly and that’s the way you have to run a business.
“I haven’t got a problem with people saying we should spend more money, as long as I can argue with them rationally and say we can’t spend the money, because we haven’t got it.”
That is where Albion fans should be aware that – just like Mrs Thatcher – the leader will offer no U-turn in pursuit of a more fan-friendly strategy towards the common goal of establishing the Baggies as a Premier League club.
Peace believes there are even greater efficiencies to be had in recruitment and squad size, for example, that can pay rich dividends.
There will need to be, because he admits the club has committed its Premier League cash from this season AND the two parachute payments to come in meeting the costs of the current squad.
He said: “Do I take a pride in the way we run this football club? Yes I do. Do I think we could run it better? Yes, I think we could.
“I can still look at this year and ask how much money we have wasted.
“I think we have wasted quite a lot of money this year on players who have come here, haven’t been utilised fully and haven’t made a full contribution but have cost us quite a bit of money.
“Spending the money for spending’s sake isn’t the way to go. The problem we had last summer was we had the maximum amount of money with the minimum amount of research.
“You want to be in a position, where you have the maximum amount of research and spend the minimum amount of money.”
That is likely to apply this summer. Albion are cutting down the squad size of experienced first-team regulars to 20.
This is not a figure plucked from thin air but reached by typical Peace logic – a study of the number of players his managers have used in the last four seasons.
That group will be supplemented by the largely under-21 reserve group who will in turn be backed up by the under-18s.
But any re-shaping of the squad by Mowbray will have to be financed by sales.
That is one side of Peace’s pragmatism which will displease supporters. Yet equally firmly, the club owner is ring-fencing his best players from being sold.
If, as the club intend, they are back in the Premier League a year from now, they do not want to have to start trying to dig out James Morrisons and Jonas Olssons again.
Peace said: “In order for us to attract the players we want, they will need to see there is the core of a Premier League squad already here.”
Most important for Albion will be the continuing effectiveness of his working relationship with the manager.
Mowbray is Peace’s third boss after Gary Megson and Bryan Robson left under a cloud.
Experienced Albion watchers waited for familiar signs of tension leading to fracture to develop, as Mowbray struggled through his first Premier League campaign.
But if they were there, they were barely detectable.
Having seen the supporters offer the manager their own vote of confidence with Sunday’s sustained ovation following the 2-0 defeat by Liverpool, Peace continues to speak warmly of a man who leads the team with such definite principles.
The chairman said: “The supporters have been fantastic in terms of backing the team. They clearly like the style of play and we’ve got to try to continue that, so hopefully with Tony in place carrying it forwards we’ve got to try to build on the experience of this season.
“Even though it’s ended in relegation, we’ve got to build on it and try to use it to help us get back out of the Championship.
“With a bit more pragmatism towards the end of the season, we’ve seen a bit more steel in the team and I think that has helped us a bit.
“Given we’re going to the Championship with the hurly-burly of that, Tony won’t compromise his values but he will try to get that balance to the squad that he thinks he’s now got.
“I think he now feels we have a team which, if we’d had it at the start of the season, might have given us a different outcome.
“He feels the squad he has now is delivering more than the squad he took over almost three years ago.”
Does he regret not going the Stoke way? How did he feel hearing their fans taunting Albion with their songs about playing long ball?
His shrewd response was: “How did Watford fans feel when our lot were singing ‘3-0 to the football team’ a year earlier?”
“It’s a work in progress, team building is always a rolling five-year programme. Let’s see where it takes us.”
In the absence of the benefactor Albion can’t attract, despite advertising the club for sale on more than one occasion in his seven years at the helm, there will be no quick answers to that question.
Peace said: “The fact is we haven’t got a benefactor. There are people investing huge sums into clubs, not necessarily for a financial return.
“The challenge is to find out, if we haven’t got that, whether we can compete at the highest level doing things a different way.
“That means using the academy and the recruitment system and, clearly, we haven’t got it exactly right at the moment.
“But we are improving it all the time.”
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Cue several Alf-Garnett-like sneering remarks notably lacking any substance or alternative whatsoever, along the lines of….
“Not a clue”
“It’s Peace’s fault we went down”
“Get your wallet out”
“This club’s going nowhere with Peace in charge”
“Peace out”
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Hi guys,
Not been in here for a while, just thought I’d stand back a little while you were fighting the drop, hopefully you’ve all settled down now and are looking forward with great anticipation to next season.
I’ve said it many times, it doesn’t matter what league your in, there is no better feeling than winning football matches, there are going to be a lot happy Braggies come August 2010, I am 100% sure your gonna walk away with the Championship next season and I for one will be ecstatic for you.
A couple of observations on this story if I may.
JP says the club has no money to spend, if that is so, what is he doing there in the first place, I cannot believe there is no money available.
You cannot run a big club like Albion on a shoe string budget, the Braggies have a wonderful tradition of entertaining football and a fan base to be proud of, so why does the Chairmans ambition not meet the expectation that runs through the rest of the club.
Oh well, good luck for next season guys, hopefully, we Villains will be here waiting to welcome you back in 2010.
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So Jezza, you say we have wasted quite a lot of money on players this season and not utilized the players we have bought,well i wonder whose fault that is.Do you or do you not, pay a manager a great deal of money to do a job.
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Oldburyite,
There’s income to cover costs, including wages and overheads etc, and then there’s surplus cash in the form of profit over and above paying your shareholders a dividend. Presumably when JP says he has no cash, he means there’s enough to pay the bills, but not much else.
Sure that might not seem to mean actually having no cash, but it just means no spare cash.
It’s like students who, despite having a laptop, car, rent, lots of clothes, spend loads on beer and CDs etc, then claim “oh I’m skint so I can’t come and visit you dad”.
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On another point “we haven’t the money to spend”get the violins out pal,Parachute money to come down and millions to go up.Where has all the money gone,Jezz? How many more times are we going to yo-yo Jezza?
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In history I learnt that “peace” often follows when a side capitulates and waives a white flag…
Another piece of history; “the Albion of the 21st century is modelled on Charlton”, enough said.
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which clown wrote this article?
we got promoted twice under megson, once under mowbray
i have that that as 3 times up 3 times down.
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7- Peace wasn’t chairman for Megson’s first promotion, it was Paul Thompson
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3, 5 Santa. Couldnt agree more, where has all the money gone. Shouldnt the manager do the research for the players he brings in and be prepared to take the flak if they dont work out. If you dont pay the money you wont get the players. no 6. “the Albion of the 21st century is modelled on Charlton”, too right and look where they are !!
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Connor, while I will agree with you to a point, I will again repeat, If JP has no money to spend, what is he doing there.
Please dont give me the, Nobody wants to buy WBA routine, I’m sure if a reasonable price was put on the club, there are potential buyers out there.
If a club like Albion are financially unable to compete, then somewhere something is very wrong,
the home support is excellent, where is all that revenue going too.
We had all this at Villa during the Ellis years, yes he kept the club in the black and except for a couple of times, in the bottom half of the table as well.
Speculate to accumilate, it will reap rewards in the long run.
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Amos, JP wasn’t chairman for the first promotion. Clown?
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7) First sgm promotion was under Thompson and not Peace!
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so the Dark sith as spoken shame he didnt say all this before the season tickets went on sale.
i bet there would ahave been alot less than 16000.
He states non of the best players will not be sold , to buy new players we will have to raise 5 million at least, the rubish what we got on the fringes will not generate enough for rebuilding.fact
He says the club got no money, Rubbish him and the invisible directors will have ther fair share fact.
He as to take the blame for messers Philips and gera going right at the start of the season and no replacments fact
i will not be giving my hard earned cash to JP and his cronies fact
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Nathan
Peace wasn’t the Chairman when we got promoted the first time. So, for him, its 2 promotions not 3.
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Oh dear. Here we go again. I finish reading an interview that confirms my belief that we have a chairman that knows exactly what he’s doing, is humble enough to admit that he and his manager have made mistakes but that we’re in safe hands. Then along comes Santa. Not the one that brings joy to the kids at Christmas but the one that criticises everything while offering no viable alternatives. Yes TM has brought in one or two duff players. He’s also brought in some excellent players that cost less than Torres in total and still gave Liverpool a hell of a hard game. Even Alex Ferguson makes mistakes, Veron, Djemba Djemba etc, I suppose if you were a Man U fan you’d be calling for his head.
Your other point ‘where has the money gone.’ Warren explained this to you at great length on a previous thread but as it doesn’t suit your argument, you have chosen to ignore it. ‘There’s none as deaf as them that don’t want to hear.’
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mmm well there is gonna be a lot more clubs gonna be run like the baggies,not to be in debt in this climate is bloody good,wait till the arsenals n man us and the chelseas have to run it like us only a matter of time ask any chairmam,ask charlton south hampton derby,i would love jp to just open up his wallet or any rich arab or yank ,and go pay 15 and 20 million for players,no point doing that what type of player would we attract? il tell you another ,hartson,simpson moore,chech,davies,players that dont give a crap,or players on there last legs after a pension or players who jus use the club get religated then cut n run,i feel we are doin it the right way ,sighns are there that we will be the sucess we are all after,and after the liverpool game the fans where behind the club no chants of peace or mowbray out,lets see id rarther have 11 shoestring players who will sweat blood for wba than 11 prema donners who take and not give yes we the supporters diserve the best and i think we will have this without goin in debt
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two promotions, three relegations, they say promotion is worth £60 million, parachute payments are £30million plus gate receipts and sale of players like dio. cam. and curtis davies etc all adds up to over £200million……why should he change anything, HES MAKING A MINT!!!!
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“Albion are cutting down the squad size of experienced first-team regulars to 20.”
Okay, but this includes bringing in ‘new blood’ I take it? At the moment 6 are leaving because they are loanees or their contracts are up. But by my reckoning there are at least twenty six others on the books or in the frame like Fortune – so the figures don’t seem to add up unless you include Cech, Fortune, Carlos, Brunt, Morrison and Valero.
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Where has all the money gone?
No ambition, no sponsor, and soon to be no players.
The sooner JP leaves the club, the better.
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Nathan,
Try reading the piece again and you will see Martin Swain is referring to 3 relegations and 2 promotions under Jeremy Peace as Chairman. Our first Promotion was under the Chairmanship of Paul Thompson and JP took over that summer after Meggo threatened to walk out if Thompson remained as Chairman.
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Interesting this, yes JP we know u run the club well as a business. If we were 2 go up again which will be tough and say we was 2 do the same again, run on a budget & come down AGAIN would people still be saying everythings ok. It has not worked! For every Leicester,Leeds,Charlton,Sheff Wed that risks and looses there are Wigan,Fulham,Portsmouth etc that have suceeded. Take just a bit of a gamble. Its all very well goin into politics JP & tryin 2 make it sound good but we will get fed up soon and as for “for every 1 person expressing criticism there are 100 saying ur doin a good job.” I think u will find it is actually majority of fans that think otherwise hence the banner at Sunderland game. Im sure ur a nice guy but 2 me we’ve got the manager 2 take us places we want 2 go (oldburyite) said it himself, stop holdin us back.
Sums it all up that when we first became a premiership team in 2002, a smaller club called Hull City were struggling 2 hold onto football league status – Now 7 years on they have climbed the leagues and are currently in a better position 2 stay in the premiership of all places than ourselves!
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Nathan (no. 7) – true, Megson got us up twice however the first time was with Paul Thompson at the helm, not Jeremy Peace. Peace took over the following season after Paul Thompson quit after a showdown with Megson.
So the article is correct – Jeremy Peace has 2 times up, 3 times down.
Get your facts right, mate, before calling someone a clown…
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Albion have no money. Wasted money on players. Hmm. The chairman appoints the manager, the manager spends the money on players that are not good enough.
JP’s concerns for Albion not ending up like Charlton, Southampton & Leeds are admirable but are actually stopping the Baggies from being a Wigan or Bolton or a Stoke.
The crux of it is if Mowbray & the Albion really do play that well & are that good, why did we spend three parts of the season BOTTOM? Anyone that saw Albion this season did indeed see very good passing, flowing football, when we had the ball. However when we hadn’t got the ball teams went straight through us without breaking sweat. The table doesn’t lie. This was a very poor & embarassing season. Let us hope serious lessons are learned. Judging from the above article though, it seems perhaps not.
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21 Dano.
‘There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics.’ To be like the three clubs you mention Wigan, Fulham and Portsmouth, we lack a multi millionaire Chairman who is able to pour massive funds in to buy and then pay big name players. Unless you’re volunteering of course.
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24 – I dont remember wigan spending loads in their first season, maybe portsmouth did and was a bad example but I forgot 2 mention Bolton,Sunderland and hate 2 keep mentioning it, but the most boarin team 2 watch ever but Stoke! It HAS been done. I am on about their 1st or 2nd seasons not now, when millions & millions were not been spent as u put it just a bit of investment & no even fair wage structures. So u sayin it cant be done?? That we need a multi millionaire, I suppose we mite as well give up then & I guess ur rite cuz JP certainly hasn’t proved otherwise. Whoever it was that said this was a pivitol season was right and its not gone 2 plan. I just hope this is our final setback cuz (24) would u honestly still be stickin up for peace if we was 2 match Palaces record of 4 relegations?? Surely it shows his plan 2 establish in the top flight on running tightly and carefuly is not working.
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The Real Bully Hoo, no prezzies for you,fact is we have gone down again chap,so once again where has all the dough gone?.I don’t need to offer any viable alternatives, we are paying a Manager a lot of bl66dy money to do a job.
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24 – All im sayin is we have had too many cracks at this, JP could definatley invest more everyone knows that. His plan 2 establish in top flight just isn’t working however way u wanna dress it. Portsmouth mite have been a bad example but i dont remember Wigan spending much in their 1st season. Theres also Sunderland, Bolton and I hate 2 keep mentioning them but the most boaring team 2 watch ever, Stoke. These have not spent millions & millions as u put it in their 1st seasons. Just a bit of money and no even/fair, restricting wage structures. Its not working simple as that. I go back 2 my point about Hull. Anyway heres 2 hoping for 3 points 2day! Boing Boing!!
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for gods sake peace just go. we have a great manager who wants to take us places and get the club an established premier league club. With peace we will just be a yo yo club. now people will say about leeds,chartlon etc etc ! WE DONT WANT TO WIN THE LEAGUE ! JUST A LITTLE GAMBLE TO GET US A ESTABLISHED CLUB ! PEACE OUT NOW ! I WILL NOT WASTE MY MONEY WHILE HE IS STILL THERE !
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