enjoy your comments throughout the season,would agree with most of your retaned list (thank god you didn,t put moore in) still not convinced about carson certenly as captain

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One question – have you seen Slory play? He doesn’t look like he can cut it in the Championship, let alone the Prem. Ditto Wood, he needs to be loaned out for a couple of years.

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Promotion’s a big IF, but if that IF becomes reality, then as far as your 13 go, then I think your spot on Pete.

Full-backs and cover at centre-back would be a must, although I’d still love to see Zuiverloon fulfil his undoubted potential. If RDM wants to play 4-5-1, we’d need a real quality target man as well, seen as we only have Bednar who can effectively play that role.

I suspect we’d be looking abroad for value for money, but in terms of Premiership experience, any thoughts on the following:

Curtis Davies, Danny Fox, Nicky Shorey, Nedum Onouha, Steve Finnan, Hermann Hreidarsson, Jason Roberts, Dave Kitson, Benjani, David Nugent, Daniel Sturridge (loan), Aruna Dindane??

I don’t know Bomber’s personal circumstances, but he gets my best wishes whatever they may be. 3 points tomorrow, come on you Baggies!!

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Each day I read this pages with interest… but usually without contributing – I usually switch off when the banter gets silly, but your opinions have encouraged a response as I agree with most of them… even if there’s a high degree of optimism underlying most of them – I share that optimism however I’m sure other comments will bring us both back down earth! Defence and strike force are defo the main concerns and we need real quality and EXPERIENCE in those areas, but I would add the management team to those areas in need of improvement – not suggesting a change, but a concern that Roberto will be even more out of his depth in the greedy league.. I think this is the area where we need to learn/progress quickly as the demands of short term success are even more prevalent in the Premier League than anywhere else. Hopefully there will be key lessons learnt between now and the end of the season. Best wishes to Bomber from here too…

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Hilltop,I would go along with most of what you have said although I would include Cech in your first group and put Miller, Barnes & Thomas into the second category.
Miller obviously has pace and strength and much time left to develop further but for me his finishing needs alot of improvement and his inability to do even the basics with his right foot will always prevent him from reaching the top level.
I would leave Barnes out of the top category simply because I haven’t seen enough of him and he has been out along time with injuries – he has huge potential but is unproven.
Thomas is an interesting one in that he has undoubtedly been one of our most important players this season but he has come up short previously at the top level and he is a bit of a one trick pony which I think would be exposed at the top level.

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CARSON-maybe
KIELY-maybe
OLSSON-yes
CECH-yes
BARNETT-no
KOREN-yes
BEDNAR-yes
MILLER-yes
BRUNT-yes
BARNES-yes
THOMAS-maybe
WOOD-maybe
MOORE-no
DORRANS-yes
MATTOCK-no
R.REID-no
CARSON-maybe
TEIXIERA-maybe
MULUMBU-yes
ZUIVERLOON-maybe
MEITE-maybe
TAMAS-yes
MORRISON-yes
VALERO-yes
SLORY-no
COX-maybe
JARA-yes
HABER-no.

There`s not much wrong with Albions squad at
the moment so if Roberto Di Matteo got us up
all we`d need would be 2 defenders and a
striker.
I think the main question should be
WILL ROBERTO DI MATTEO CUT IT IN THE PREM?
The bloke seems to be loving life at the Albion and he`s still trying to keep us playing the entertaining football(but has
not been there for a few weeks but will return).DI MATTEO MAY HAVE HIS FAULTS BUT AT
LEAST HE`S GOT A BIT OF CHARISMA ABOUT HIM!.
So please Albion fans get behind him!

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Hilltop, I started off pretty much agreeing with your picks, but when you really think about it, its a bit scary. Theres only a few that we could say would definitely be good enough – Dorrans, Koren and Morrison probably being the standout ones, but Korens likely to move on and I don’t think Dorrans could resist a top 10 move, so that would leave our midfield very exposed. Forwards, no confidence that any of them would make it. Bednar and Ish would be the most obvious best bets, but neither did that much last time, and both miss loads of games with injuries. Brunt, Mulumbu, Watson, Olssen likely to be good enough, maybe Tamas, then what? Carson wasn’t good enough for Villa or L’pool, and for us has always been match saving then match costing. So a fair few to sort out imo.But lets get there first.

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I cannot believe that Hilltop has put Scott Carson on his list, he has lost all credibility in my book now.

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IF we do go up, I would like to see Valero fit into a 5 man midfield with Dorrans along side him and Mulumbu or Jara protecting the back four. I think Thomas, Barnes and Morrison are capable wingers! So i am not too worried about our midfield.

I think a fully fit Bednar and Miller will be decent attacking options, but we need atleast 2 more strikers i think, Cox and Wood have the potential to be quality strikers, but I would not like to rely on them in a relegation battle.

Defence worries me, we desperately need cover for Tamas and Olsson, and our current full backs I hope will be sold on to Halesowen Town (if they will have them that is) so cover for Cech, and a new right back is a must!

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Hilltop.
First of all sincere best wishes to Jarrod.

An interesting idea for a blog, even if being superstitious I’m not sure if we should be delving into it.

Like most, except for the Shadrags, I more or less agree with your picks. The trouble is like you and most Baggies, I find it hard to be objective. Some are too optimistic, some are too harsh and some will never give credit to their hate figures or admit their favourites ever make a mistake.

I noticed Alan Irvine was the latest in a long line of opposition managers to praise the quality of our squad and perhaps that is the best unbiased as well as knowledgable assessment.

The PL isn’t the same quality that it was last time we were there and that time it wasn’t as good as the first time we went up. Look at the Man Ure team that lined up against Wolves compared to the one that beat us last year. Look at Burnley’s squad and they’re still in the mix to stay up.

Before people start having a go at RDM’s inexperience let’s also remember that he came in late and was unable to make too many changes to the squad. The Jan window isn’t much use to clubs in our position, that don’t know which division we’ll be in next season. I’m sure if we go up it will be with a much stronger squad this time

There seem to be people on here who are more keen to sell Graham Dorrans than the E&S are, he hasn’t said he wants to go anywhere yet and he’s on a long contract. The Scott Carson knockers in our midst are worse than the vultures in the media that magnify his every mistake while ignoring the good saves. Slory may or may not be a good player, how can you make a decision on a couple of appearances when he hasn’t been fully match fit? Likewise Chris Wood, the lad’s barely eighteen, let’s cast him aside because he isn’t as good as Wayne Rooney at that age.
I remember Zoovy having a good game when he filled in at CH at Boro last year, perhaps a change of position might do him good.

I didn’t mean to go on like this, so it shows how good the blog was.

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okay first thing in my book is that we need GOOD players comming in with quite abit of EXPERIENCE in a top league of what ever country is available,players that are not going to be pushed about,velero comes to mind,zuiverloon,meite,to be honest i dont want to see them again next season,they have cost us so many points with co co the clown defending,that really hurt us as a club,silly points lost and cup games,so i would like one or two PROFESIONALS comming in,some of the defending ive seen is sunday football at best,that was our big mistake last time up in the prem we had no EXPERIENCE, stoke hull and birmingham did.

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agree with your assessment would like to see 4-5 prem/quality experience rather than a dozen much of a muchness type cc player.and the majority of money spent on the best striker that we could possibly afford

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Is this the 5 Minute Argument or the Full Half-hour? First: Our virgin manager has us in the top two at present. What the Hell else would please some of you? If we were trying to make the play-off positions then the odd complaint might be justified. Second: The size of squad was trimmed this year with new limits placed on it for economy reasons. Many clubs are looking at bank managers with very sheepish expressions, even Man.U. As such, there will be a glut of players looking for new clubs this coming season and wages trimmed to suit the economic climate. A few more won’t take risks for peanut salaries, (pause for ironic laughter), so let’s hope we don’t buy those ones.
A damn good blog Hilltop. Whatever it is that concerns Bomber and Laura, be sure we all feel for them. Even football ain’t THAT important.

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AFTER TODAYS RESULT ,IT WAS A MASSIVE 3 POINTS WITH THE RESULTS AT THE OTHER GAMES,WE SHOULD BE THERE ABOUTS AS FOR THE PUSH FOR THE PREM REALY DONT THINK CARSON IS THE BEST FOR THE TOP GOOD No2 WE HAVE SOME PLAYERS THAT WILL CUT IT IN THE PREM..THOSE IN MY OPINION WHO WILL LIGHT UP THE PREM DORRANS,JARRA,TOMATZ,REID,BARNS ,OLSEN,MULUMBU,COX BEDNER MAYBE MILLER,.IN THE SUMMER ID TRY AND BRING IN JAMES OR GREEN,AS KEEPER,BULLARD,JASON ROBERTS,FULLER,HELGASON,MAKE OLSEN CAPTIAN JUST FRESHEN THE SQUAD DONT NEED MANY PLAYERS IN THAT SHOULD BE GOOD ENOUGH TO KEEP US IN THERE IF THE LIKES OF THE DINGLES STOKE BIRMINGHAM CAN STAY UP WITH CRAP PLAYERS THEN WE CAN DO IT THIS TIME WITH THE QUALITY WE HAVE NOW NEVER MIND MY SUMMER WISH LIST

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