Tony Pulis says given time, he will improve West Brom again
Tony Pulis says Albion have now got enough quality on the pitch to play expansive football and has promised fans that given time, he will improve the team again.
For two years Pulis has been trying to rebuild the Baggies in his image, but last season was a grind that put plenty of supporters off the Welshman.
However, this campaign has been much more exciting, and Albion currently sit five points clear in eighth place, having lost just one game to a team outside the current top seven this season.
"I know where we are," he said, after Saturday's 2-2 draw with West Ham. "I'm very pleased we can come away and play more open and expansive. We've got the players to do that now.
"But it takes time, step by step. The important thing is people understanding we're not going to be able to go out and spend £100 million.
"Although we've got Chinese owners we're not going to do that. What we've got to do is be clever and make sure we get a really good spirit and togetherness in the dressing room and then every year and in every window we try and make the team better.
"If it's one player, brilliant. If it's two players, brilliant. But you need time to do that. Unfortunately in football if you have a bad spell, people wobble.
"You just hope you're given the chance, as I was at Stoke, Gillingham for four years and other places I've worked at.
"Given time you can walk away from a football club and they say 'he did a good job here'."
Albion's season fizzled out last year when they reached 40 points, but Pulis didn't have James Morrison or Chris Brunt, who were both injured, and has since added Nacer Chadli, Matt Phillips, Allan Nyom and Jake Livermore to the team.
Morrison played his 300th Albion game on Saturday, but looked perplexed when he was brought off for Claudio Yacob with the scores level.
Pulis also took off Chadli and Phillips in changes that appeared to be negative, but the head coach said he was worried about injuries.
"Mozza's been brilliant," he said. "One of the staff said he was holding his hamstring so I brought him off to make sure.
"We did the same with Chadli. We didn't want to take a risk with Chadders. They're important players."
