Paul Robinson ready for Albion return
Tuesday 28th September 2010, 10:59AM BST.
Albion old-boy Paul Robinson today promised to take any fans’ backlash “on the chin” as he geared up for his first return to the Hawthorns.
Robinson will be back on his old stomping ground as a Bolton player on Saturday, his first Hawthorns appearance since he demanded a move from the Baggies at the start of last season.
And the 31-year-old is ready to withstand any abuse from Baggies fans unhappy at the manner in which he jumped ship.
He said: “I left because I wanted a fresh challenge knowing that, at the age I was then, I may not get any more opportunities in the top flight.
“It was no disrespect to the fans or Roberto Di Matteo, who I feel has done a fantastic job.
“I hope the supporters appreciate my reasons and my contribution for the previous six years, but if I get stick or banter then I’ll take it on the chin.”
Robinson made 238 appearances for Albion during a six-year stint with the club that included two promotions and the ‘Great Escape’ under Bryan Robson.
He added: “I’ve got nothing but fond memories of West Brom. I had six happy years there.
“We won promotion, we had the Great Escape, we got to the FA Cup semi-final and I like to think that, in the main, I had a great relationship with the fans.
“The best years of my career were at the Hawthorns. But I left the club because I was fed up of us going down, going back up and going down again.
“We never replaced the goals of Zoltan Gera and Kevin Phillips and, maybe if we had done so, then I would still be at the club as a Premier League player.
“We didn’t and we went down again, so when Bolton came in I had a really tough decision to make.
“It was a difficult decision for me but Bolton were offering me Premier League football and I had to look after my family.”
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I for one will give you a round of applause Robbo.
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Lets not waste our breath booing Robinson. Instead lets hear it ” THERE’S ONLY ONE NICKY
SHOREY, ONLY ONE NICKY SHOREY, BOING BOING”.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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‘we never replaced the goals of gera and phillips’ very true robbo.
I’ll be there saturday and will cheer your name before the game kicks off for what you did for the club over the six years you where with us. However, when the match starts, i hope you have a mere!!!
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respect to you robbo! it’s a short career & at the end of the day we all need dough to look after our families..the more the better!
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Robbo was my favourite player at the Albion for many years all because of the way he played on the pitch. He gave nothing but 100% everytime he pulled on our shirt and was one of the factors behind our success of recent times.
He may have had his critics for the way he handled the on/off transfers or wanting to leave the club, but he felt he was a Premiership player and has now signed (and playing) for an established PL side.
However, I will never forget that Sky Sports interview when he was in tears because we had been relegated. That showed to be how much he cared about the club.
IF, we do go down and I dont think we will, it would be interesting as always to see who really wanted to stay like Robbo did for such a long time.
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Bomber, spoken like a gentleman. That’s how we should treat all our ex players. We are a good club with manners to match.
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I shall give him a cheer, as he was a good servant to us. At least he was honest in this report, and i for one will not forget the header against the Villa at Vile Park in the last minute to get us a point and what a header it was.
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He served us well, had a decent 6 year spell and played with his heart on his sleeve. He left to establish himself in the top flight and appearss to have done so. Lets not forget that we did earn a decent profit when he left so lets give him a good welcome and hope he’s on the end of a defeat.
Thanks Robbo for being a top player for us.
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Yes he did a job for us when he was here but I prefer shorey/Cech and others who have replaced him as he sometimes lost his cool and as I remember was suspended at crucial times on several occasions causing us to loose shape and valuable points. True we never replaced Kev or Zoltans goals until now possiblly but we have replaced him an I for one would not wan’t him back, however I would not boo him either whats the point.
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robbo was great player for west brom,a real man”s player fully commited,hi for one will not boo him,players move on in football,as fans we have to take it,it part of the game now,cannot wait till saturday,SHIFNAL BAGGIE.
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Well done you baggies for your incredible start to the season. I for one must congratulate on your 3 points at Arsenal and believe you will stay up this season. Wish i could say the same for my beloved Wolves.
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I liked Robbo, and will never forget his equalizer at Villa in the dieing seconds of the match……….Magic. And when you consider his record and work load at Albion compare to some I could mention LM for instance lets make him feel welcome, and then shaft Bolton, just like Arsenal. Boing Boing come you Baggies. :-)
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A good player who gave us 5 years of good service and who clobbered a few players in local derbies and that goal at Villa Park which raised me to my feet screaming in delight as I sat in the Witton Lane stand surrounded by seals.
Robbo along with Greening would not make our bench now with Gera probably just getting the seventh seat.
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To be honest I don’t really care why he left.
He blames the lack of goals for being relegated.
What about the other end, where goals were conceded all too easily.
Seen it all too often, players get to dizzy heights with big money rewards and think they have the divine right to stay there.
He thinks he is a Premier player, fair enough but he was one who failed to keep us up there last time.
Things happen for a reson and two years on I’m very happy with what we’ve got now, that’s what matters.
What RDM and his team has kept and built.
Oh and I won’t give him hell, I’ll be there to support the stripes
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No problems with Robbo he always put a good shift in, just found kissing the badge a little hypocritical.
In his time at Albion he was a top performer but his last season with us he was poor and Cech deserved to play in my opinion.
I wish him good luck with Bolton after Saturday.
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He’ll get a good round of applause form me.
Paul provided me with many of my favourite football moments. The best being when he kicked out in frustration at an advertising board right in front of me and got his foot stuck. A member of the crowd had to come to his rescue to free him. Hopefully he doesn’t make the same mistake this time or he could be in for a nasty shock!
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I will be cheering Nicky Shorey on personally.
He was a good player but as stated before by others the badge kissing was a little naughty.
Anyway come on you baggies lets get another 3 points.
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No. 14
Agree with you, Robbo was one of the main reasons we went down that season, he was not performing well. I know players want to look after their families etc, but being at a club where you are happy is a key to how you are perceived. We have a very good squad now, with some exciting talent. Players do come and go, but it was the manner in which Robbo left that lets him down. We pay the admission prices and should get the respect that we deserve through players conducting themselves in the right manner.
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I remember coming on here week after week in his last season complaining about his performances and screeming for Cech to be brought in, but the fact that he continued to be picked wasn’t his fault – it was Mowbray’s. He only ever gave his best (which wasn’t good enough in his final season)and you can’t ask any more of someone in any job so I’ll be giving her a cheer at kick off too.
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A great servant to the club. Always got stuck in…remember the 50-50 challenge with Maurice Volz v Fulham. he got up, Volz didn’t!
He will get a good reception off me, but as soon as the game kicks off he’ll be treated like any other opposition player.
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Sorry Robbo – I meant to say “him” and not “her” in my last post. A slip of the finger honestly !
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i will shout lookout Robbo kites is behind ya,oh sorry have i got that the wrong way round,aye boing boing
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i think our fans knew we wuz in for a good seasun thats why we sod more season tickets than wolfs,aye boing boing
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I for one wont boo him before kick off, always gave 100% and never backed out a tackle!!
My fav robbo moment was when we played sheff wed and we was losing at home, one of there players went down to easy and faked an injury to kill time right by the line.
Robbo just grabbed him and pulled him off the pitch and took the throwing!! class!!
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i will give old badge kisser a cheer, when his name is called out although i dont agree with the way he went about a move, it does hurt when descent players leave you forwhat they say is a better club and telling all the fans that have cheered you for the last few years that too!! imo robbo was no good for the prem i always remember him making too many mistakes along with the other donkeys we had, top quality championship player but thats it.
bolton will be the toughest game yet i reckon,
cmon the baggies, lets av em
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I will give him the respect he deserves as with 99% of those who return. I acknowledge his commitment and service, but I wasn’t too disturbed by his departure either.
There were times when poor judgement cost us and as a result threw some doubt over his worth. I’ve no problem with no nonsense players, but sometimes this can mask a lack of quality. I believe Albion are better off without him, but thanks for the memories, Robbo.
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I will applaud Robbo , always gave 100%.
I can remember the play off’s v wolves when he dragged one of their players off the pitch to carry the game on , memories haha.
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Cant stand the bloke ! Albion this time around look to have a good side. No kiddin.So i genuinely hope he dont go in with one of his trademark career threatening, over the top callanges. What he did to Kites obviously makes some of the lesser brains on hear laff, but it aint that funny when it happens to you. Karl Henry might be a bit reckless at times, but he dont come close to that dirty so n so. Shouldnt he be playing for stoke anyway.
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I’ll save my booing for players that deserve it, like Curtis “i’m going on strike, stuff the supporters” Davis who think they’re way better than they are and we all owe them living! Robbo doesn’t make it into the “legends” catergory due largely to the way he went about getting a transfer but i’ll happily applaud the bloke (if i make it out of the pub in time!) for his sterling service whilst here, always a true 100%er – no one can argue that!
I disagree with the assesment he was a dirty player, people who say things like that don’t understand the dying art of tackling (yes, it was a great skill at one time, but sadly, has more or less been ruled out of the modern game) – sure he mis-timed the odd one here and there, who doesn’t? – goes with the terrority. Dirty players are likes of Alan Smith who can’t tackle only foul. Agree with oly2k2 – he was, and still is, out of his depth a little in prem, but at championship level he was surely the best in his position for a couple of seasons at least.
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Robbo was my favourite Baggie for years but even I could see that Cech needed a fair crack of the whip.
Now Cech has a fight on his hands with Shorey and I do beleive that Robbo would struggle to hold onto that place now.
He was a great player for us, as has been said before he gave 100% and never gave up the ghost. Tough tackler and scored a few aswell. I don’t see why anyone would want to boo him. I seem to remember when a side booed Robbo he’d take the game by the scruff of the neck a cause the opposition a shed load of problems. We also made a tidy profit from him and his departure belatedly prompted the arrival of Nicky Shorey.
I will be cheering him on the pitch and wish him all the best as long as he doesn’t get much of a look in on Saturday.
Boing Boing
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28 at leest the wones on hear wiv lesser brainns can spel,aye boing boing
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I said at the time of his transfer that he deserved more respect from those few complaining fans. I also said (and I was in the minority) that he was good enough for premier league football, and I’m delighted that he’s still a regular in his first team squad. Good on you Robbo.
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Brilliant, we have the beating of Bolton now with Robbo playing. Put someone tall and fast up against him and we’ll either score a bagfull or he’ll keep fouling them and get sent off!
Fair play to his service to us and I still think it was his injury time equaliser at the Seals that was the point that kept us up but it was the way he demanded to leave because he was too good to be playing in the Championship when it was him being out of position or unable to cope with a fast winger that cost us a load of goals which cost us our Premiership status.
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Lets hope his lack of pace and poor positioning are exposed on Saturday, and that he gives away lots of silly fouls around the penalty area as he did when playing for us.
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I’d hate to upset too many people, but there’s some wishful thinking going on here. Bolton have just so nearly beaten Man.U. Robbo played in their team and is holding down a regular job. Deduction from that ? He’s playing well and that’s something to concern us, because we do NOT want one of our talented wingers deciding they can mix the heavy stuff with him. There’s only one winner in that situation. Robbo ! He’s fearless, whatever you may think of his positional play, speed, etc. If we play as professionally as last Saturday, there should be a good outcome and how Robbo has played won’t matter as he is only one of eleven. For Gawd’s sake, don’t wind him up, or he’ll be TWO of TWELVE !
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28 lone wolf- in fairness to Robbo,he always gave 100 per cent,and was fully commited to winning the ball.As for being dirty…nah! Dirty was Kevin Muscat,I don’t think the guy even looked for the ball during a game,he was too busy taking out the players on his hit-list.The last I heard,he’d left football and became head of the KGB in Russia.They hired him to frighten the other agents.
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28,i cant remember Robbo breaking anybodys legs,hard but fair imo,aye boing boing
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i wonder how many more sets of fans can say they was singing cheerio cheerio cheerio,and we can can see you sneaking out we can see you sneaking out, at the arsenal with 25 mins left aye boing boing
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im not one to get carried away but ive booked the premier in wembley for carling cup final w/e and renewed my passort,aye boing boing
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meanwhile over on the darkside,`wolves return to wigan the scene of a memorable away in` ya just got to laff ay ya,aye boing boing
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Completey off track but I think its worth sharing…. just found these pearls on the wolves 1 villa 2 pages from our friend brunnierobwolves.. here are the rdited highlights@
“When we have our full strength squad minus Kightly we could beat most of the league. It might be time to drop Berra and Jones and go with a side like this when they are all fit:-
Hahnemann Zubar Craddock Mouyokolo Van Damme Jarvis Henry Milijas Hunt Fletcher Doyle
The biggest question marks would be – Mouyokolo, van damme and Milijas”.
So wolves could beat most of the prem with a fully fit team apart from three players who aint good enough – love it !!!
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Happy,
We can add that to the Brummierobwolves archive. Other recent additions over the summer include:
“You cannot survive in this division (Prem) without spending £10m”
“Albion are £10m short of being able to survive”
“You have a chairman who won’t spend any money, Albion aren’t good enough, they need to spend at least £10m”
“Albion are way behind Wolves, they need to spend £10m”
….strangely he hasn’t spent as much time on the Albion threads as he did over the summer!!
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41 Happy- in fairness to ‘brummierob’ he did say wolves ‘could’ not ‘would’ beat most of the league.He just forgot to add ‘if the clubs we were playing were missing their best players through injury,and the rest of the squad had the flu bug’.
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Robbo deserves a good reception ,he done a good job for us and was allways 100% and we made a profit.
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What about a “Robbo is an Albion fan” chant?
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We all remember Robbo’s crash tackles with some affection but we don’t need to be reminded of them on Saturday.
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45.JimDavis. Best idea yet mate. Love it !
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Happy, Warren. Brummierobwolves is a joke. I seem to remember him metioning that Wolves were wasting thier time with £2m players because they didn’t perform as well as the ‘big’ signings. Someone pointed out that Albion had done quite well off players who cost in that region and less (Odemwinge, Scharner, Tchoyi, Pablo, Tamas, Olsson, Shorey etc.) and quite right they were as well. Only an utter moron would think that buying big buys quality. Scouting well buys quality and reading books increases intelligence. I think Brummierob would struggle with the Beano.
Boing Boing
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I dont think Robbo should get a bad reception. I think he will get an all round good response when he returns.
But expect a few boo’s in the background from some fans. He did leave in a bad way and was a bit hypocritical and unprofessional how he demanded a move away. And he did have his own part to play in why we went down last time. I, like most people felt Cech played better in his position and he did cost us at times.
But one thing I could never doubt with Robbo is that he tried his absolute best and gave nothing less than 100% and gave it everything to play as well as he possibly could and to keep Albion in the premiership. So for that reason I think he deserves at least not get booed… he gave us some great times and good memories!
People also forget he had suffered relegation with us on more than one occasion and he gave us 6 long years of service. I think when we went down last time there was a feeling amongst the whole club and players where it was getting a bit ridiculous how many times Albion had been relegated. He needed to move on. And I totally agree with him about the Phillips & Gera opinion. Thats why I am still thinking most of the credit for our new found capable squad in the premiership is mostly down to Di Matteo, the coaching staff & Dan Ashworth more so than the board.
Not replacing Phillips & Gera in 2008,
Unfathonably selling Horsefield & Earnshaw mid season without replacing in 2006
Were both huge pivitol reasons why we were relegated and still have that yo-yo tag.
BUT in 2010 we have a saviour in RDM, and a new bunch of quality players plus experience from some of the better players from the Mowbray era. Thats why I say bring on Bolton and the return of Robbo cuz we can now compete agains anyone! The futures bright and it its blue & white :)
Boing Boing!!
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49.dano. Interesting post but I would take issue with one bit of it.
“is mostly down to Di Matteo, the coaching staff & Dan Ashworth more so than the board”.
The board administrate. They appoint football experts and then hope their judgement is good.
Let’s précis the recent managers:
Megson. Instrumental in the Chairman who appointed him resigning. a stupid situation.
Robson. Kept us up by the skin of our teeth with a very low points total.
Mowbray. Wembley x 2, a Championship Shield, football to drool over on its day, shocking defence, but did a runner when he needn’t.
diMatteo. Intelligent, thoughtful, seen it, done it, building a super squad and we aren’t broke !
Might I suggest that THAT is BRILLIANT progress by our board ?
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Fair enough Cyrill – 50
Rather than get ivolved in another chairman board debate, lets focus on what we have got now and as u said we have a great, intelligent manager building a super squad.
Which is something I think everyone is agreeing on.
And I happen to also think the chairman & board did a great job in appointing RDM. It was a great move! I accept that and have praise for the board on that one.
But its just what u mentioned how previous managers have failed, was my point exactly.
Megson – The board fell out with him, there was a bust up and he was out the door at a time when things were going perfectly fine, ironically enough on the back of a home victory against Bolton.
Robson – Agreed we were lucky to stay up by the skin of our teeth. But just as we was started to establish & consolidate another premiership season with strength in depth… the board decided on no January investmentment and to offload 2 key strikers in Horsefield & Earnshaw. Resulting in winning once for the remainder of the season and relegation.
Mowbray – Great football, great times but a naive manager coupled with the release of Gera & Phillips without being replaced (Phillips all just because the board refused to offer him a 2 year contract!!)
Somewhere down the line the chairman/board contributed to our downfall and let the manager down… I just feel whether the managers were as good as RDM or not is regardless. It has been 8 long years before we seemed to have put things right.
But know we obviously have a better manager and a better chance of staying up, Di Matteo HAS to take credit for achieving a better start than any of his predecessors. So lets hope we can do it this time!
But to avoid another debate on how the club is run, and to stick to the subject of the blog. Does Cyrill or anyone actually remember selling Robinson?? I thought him and Greening were both year long loans and I never remember hearing anything about receiving transfer fees for either of them?? Maybe I missed something…
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51 Dano
You definately missed the boat with Greening. Hde and Fulham tried to intimate that he might have to grudgingly return to the Hawthorns. Suddenly someone must have mentioned to Roy (at the time) that actually Fulham had already agreed to buy him, so some rather ridiculous back peddling went on in the media where Fulham decided that actually they were going to give Greening another chance by buying him for around £4m.
I’m pretty sure the Robinson deal has also gone through. There was a little confusion from Bolton fans who weren’t sure of the score last season, but Robbo quickly extinguished any doubt by saying that the loan was for one year and merley for tax and that he was effectively a Bolton player.
You don’t seriously think that JP would forget about them and let them go scot free do you?!
I must say I am another fan who has a lot of faith in our board and chairman. JP has been taking our limited resources and has slowly been strengthening our club from the inside out. We have some of the best training facilities in the country, which attracts players and youth players. We have a youth system which has an England representative at almost every age group, this will shape our teams of the future and make us some money from sales. We have a fantastic new stand with state of the art features within it. Our medical staff are probably the best outside the top 6 clubs which means we can keep quality players playing for longer and also means we can buy great players cheaper if they have injury concerns hanging over them. They have appointed the right men for the job consistently, Robson being the least succesfull and even he kept us in the Prem. We have some of the best scouts in the game as clubs like Fulham, West Ham, Newcastle will agree as they also use them to identify players. JP has made this club a very attractive prospect for any prospective buyers and he has done it without busting the bank. Finally we have started to reap the rewards of all this infrastructure as players like Odemwinge, Carson, Scharner, Tchoyi, Shorey, Pablo etc. have been attracted to us for reletively little money, when down the road they have to pay £7m for an avreage quality striker and £4m for an injured, relegated winger.
I’m not having a go, you are entitled to your opinion and there have been times where I have questioned the motives of our Chairman (Phillips, Horsefield, Moore), but you have to admit, when you look at the bigger picture he’s actually pulled off an amazing transformation, especially now the team on the pitch is starting to match all of the above.
Boing Boing
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Bungle
“Put George at Left Back”.
There’s a pot of gold at the end of that Rainbow.
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Danobaggs
I always like your posts Danobaggs, well written and thought out as ever, but I’ve got to disagree with some of the board criticisms.
I think it’s easy to nit-pick over the odd mistake, but ultimately we suffered relegation 3 times in 7 seasons and each time came back stronger than before, to the point now where we have the best chance ever of establishing ourselves.
Derby, Leicester, Palace, Southampton, Watford, Wolves (until last season), Sheff Utd, Leeds, Portsmouth, Sheff Weds, Middlesbrough etc have all been relegated from the Prem, how many have returned? There are obvious advantages with parachute payments, but the only teams that come back up have a sound infra-structure in place and some level of stability, and for that the board must be given infinite credit.
I agree with some of the issues you raise e.g. selling the Hos and Earnie in late Jan, but as Cyril says, to some degree the board entrust the management with footballing matters. Are those instances all to do with the board?
In the case of Mowbray, they backed him financially, but it was he that spent it on Barnett, Donk, Zuvi, Valero, Meite etc.
I could be wrong, but didn’t Megson’s dismissal come after some dismal hammering at Palace?
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