Abandon all hope….

This topic contains 12 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by  DH54WBA 6 years, 1 month ago.

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  • #1594272

    DH54WBA
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    • :

    For an hour before the game and for fifteen or twenty minutes after kick off it all looked so promising. The ground was packed by 2 o’clock, the tributes to Cyrille flowed, the crowd were on high octane, the scarves were raised , the widely distributed clappers added to the noise levels and we had just about the perfect start to the match. All the concerns being expressed around me about the team selection were (temporarily) forgotten. Where the hell was Rodriguez? We wait all season to find a striker capable of putting the ball in the net and having found one he is dropped to the bench in favour of a workhorse who can’t? Yes I know he got his shoulder to a cross and ended up on the scoresheet but in terms of winning matches will someone please explain to me what Rondon offers to the team because I just cannot see it.

    Then there was the midfield choice. One look at the line up had just about everyone mumbling and when the Saints finally came to terms with what we had to offer they simply passed their way through and around it at will. Forget the scoreline – it flatters us. We were slower in thought and foot all afternoon and when it came to passing, speed of movement and technical skills we were second best by a mile. This against a team just two places and a single point above us at the start without a win in a dozen games.

    I don’t know quite what the assembly of Albion greats and others who attended made of it but I doubt that they were any more impressed than the rest of us. Yet despite all this we did have chances. Sturridge demonstrated just how to get the ball under control first time and came close on one occasion and Brunt forced the keeper into a good save from one of several free kicks. Otherwise he and too many others simply looked too slow and/or too technically incompetent. No one appeared to know quite where any team mate was when they got the ball and at times it looked like they had never trained together.

    The drive home was long, wet and slow but allowed plenty of time for reflection and I do not believe that this squad has the remotest chance of staying up. I know we were short of several key players but there is no more creativity in the team than existed before AP took over and we will not score enough from Brunt’s corners and crosses to win games now that the defence is leaking goals. GMac has been a favourite of mine since he arrived but he cannot cope with much other than high balls now and cannot be used again. Nyom is a disaster waiting to happen at any time and its time to give one or two of the kids a chance in what remains to us of a season. Something wrong with Sam Field? Why not give Burke a starting role?

    So depressed I found myself reflecting on Dante’s message at the gates of hell. ‘ Abandon all hope ye who enter here’ It seems to fit the mood!

    #1594355

    derwentd
    Participant
    • :

    DH..you are of the same vintage as I. And, like you, I despair at the imminent fate of our team.

    We, like Stoke who are plummeting into oblivion too, are victims of one Tony Pulis, who has squeezed the life out of two teams who have been the heart of football in the Midlands for generations.

    I agree 100% that we are, with very few exceptions, an old and slow team with a serioys deficiency in technical skills. I fear the worst, because if you can’t beat bad teams like Swansea, Stoke and Southampton you do not deserve to be in this league.

    #1594781

    DH54WBA
    Participant
    • :

    Well, let’s see. I reckon Northwich and I are about the same era and if he’s your uncle I suspect there might be a gap of some sort although maybe not much? It’s true that whilst Pulis has thankfully gone he legacy in terms of the squad we have lives on and the workhorses he acquired to play his style of football are generally ill equipped to handle a fast, smooth forward passing game. Add in a couple of talented but geriatric (in footballing terms) players and the problems are compounded.

    What room is there for optimism? We have failed to beat any of the poorer teams around us just about all season and the odd unexpected point we have gained will simply not be enough. What worries me more than relegation however are our immediate prospects in the Championship. I have watched most of the top teams this season and it is probable that they would all beat us. AP will have to build a new team and it should start now by giving some of our better kids a chance. Field, Leko and Burke for a start.

    There is a very real chance that this is the beginning of a very long demise and this year has real echoes of 85/86 when we won only 4 league games all season and eventually ended up in the third tier. If it happens then much of the blame will rest with Peace who put his own interest in selling the club for the highest possible price before the long term future of the team when extending Pulis’ contract. Hope he is enjoying the money!

    #1594948

    derwentd
    Participant
    • :

    The Uncle reference is my joke about Northwich carrying on like an ‘Agony Aunt’, (sometime ago) trying in vain to answer the misguided complaints of contributors to this page.

    My first game would have been aged about 10, in 1964/5, when I saw Albion destroyed 5-1 by a very good Leeds United. I guess I’m a glutton for punishment because my brother and I were undaunted by this reverse and persuaded our Mum to take us to another game, where we saw our heroes beat Leicester, with Gordon Banks in goal.

    50 years ago I was the only person at school who supported Albion, when we watched them beat Everton on a black and white TV. Maybe history will repeat itself?

    Whatever…I agree that things do not look good and that if we are relegated we will lose our best players and many others will retire. So AP might as well give the younger guys a chance, to see if they are any good.

    #1594964

    sarky parky
    Participant
    • :

    Strangely enough, many of the players Pulis signed were not “workhorses” Jonny Evans and Hegazi aren’t workhorses, neither is Gibbs, nor Greg, nor Chadli, nor Rodriguez, nor Gareth Barry. With Foster, Dawson and Brunt, and Morrison who all preceded Pulis, we surely have the makings of a reasonable side. On Saturday, Saints completely bossed the midfield and the twin pairing of Yacob and Barry – and the absence of the Pole and Rodriguez spelled out disaster. If the injuries to Greg and Gibbs and Evans are medium to long term then a difficult task becomes an impossible one. We need Hejazi’s mate to step up to the plate as GMac proved that, great servant though he’s been, he’s not Sandwell’s Roger Federer.

    #1595529

    DH54WBA
    Participant
    • :

    That’s a fair point Sarky but even those you mention were used as workhorses which is why none of Greg, Chadli or Rodriguez were able to perform for him. I happen to think Barry is these days and I am not in the camp that thinks Evans is a wonderful player either. Yes he is generally good for us but United do not sell wonderful players in their twenties even to teams like us and there was no one better placed in the market for him? Why was that do you think?

    However I do agree that we probably have more talent than was evident on Saturday but whether this in itself is enough to produce the remarkable ending that we now need this season is highly unlikely. Chadli and Morrison are seemingly on the sick list for a while yet and that leaves us just Greg and Brunt as suppliers of the creativity needed. One is currently injured and the other was our player of the year back in 09/10 I think who looks as tired as I feel these days. Doesn’t really inspire confidence does it but we’ll keep cheering them on regardless.

    Derwent you are a whole decade behind my induction on 1st May 1954 but I never really got to see the team play until the early 60’s and only then in away games down south which meant it was quite a while before I saw them win one! Followed them everywhere thereafter until the kids came along and if that shot from the little used left foot of the King had burst the net and carried on I could have headed it back. Great moment and not too many of the same since but perhaps I’ll get to enjoy the yo-yo years all over again!

    #1596085

    sarky parky
    Participant
    • :

    Sadly, I pre-date you all. My first match was in March 1947 when I saw us lose to Doncaster 3-1. Doncaster then were certs for relegation from the old second division – this helps me get the Southampton match in perspective! But I did follow in astonishment the rise of Albion from thence until by 1953-54 we had a team rated the best in the country with the magnificent Ronnie Allen and Ray Barlow as the lynchpins and creative hubs under Vic Buckingham, the best and most progressive coach of his day and the absolute antithesis of Tony Pulis, Nelson Mandela compared to Robert Mugabe. They dipped in the early to mid-sixties but then another fine side emerged and two more Albion greats in Jeff Astle and Bobby Hope who in turn were followed by another great team in the late seventies with Cyrille and Bryan Robson as the kingpins. Nothing much since apart from, at a championship level the holy trinity of Taylor. Hunt and Sneekes, and later Koumas, Kamara and Gera – and of course Kevin Philips who was a class act in any company.
    And who can follow these now. Greg, Rodriguez, Chadli – difficult to see it but we need inspiration from somewhere. Let’s hope it comes at Chelsea.

    #1596086

    sarky parky
    Participant
    • :

    As the for the sale of Evans, it occurred during the very strange tenure of Louis Van Gaal who seemed quite incapable of evaluating a player. At the time I was amazed that he rated Evans below Jones and Smalling – and i think his performances for us have generally confirmed this. And it’s less than two weeks’ ago that Barry controlled the midfield against Liverpool – when he had Greg with him. I agree with the point about Chadli, Greg and Rodriguez, thoroughbreds from the Tottenham, Southampton and PSG stables – unable AND unwilling to act as workhorses.

    #1596299

    DH54WBA
    Participant
    • :

    Clearly we are in danger of becoming just an old boys club on this site but I am seriously impressed with your longevity. Respect. Some great memories and great Albion players mentioned and how we could do with one or two of the same ilk right now. Fans will always have different views on individual players – the guy next to me last week had not a good word to say about Brunt and I thought he played about as well as anyone (which isn’t saying much really) but we all seem agreed about Hegazi. A really good signing and if his mate from Egypt proves as effective so much the better. With Sturridge and Rodriguez we now have a couple of strikers who would thrive on a well place through ball but just who is going to deliver one? The best forward pass of the second half was played by Hegazi of all people and he can’t be expected to fill that role as well as defend and score! We have been bleating about a lack of creativity for so long now it feels like forever and as Sods Law would have it now that we have a manager ready to play the likes of Greg, Chadli and Morrison in this role they are all injured! The Fates do conspire I fear?

    #1596617
    ciaranwba
    ciaranwba
    Participant
    • :

    1947 jesus,i genuinly had some of you down as 15 or 16 year old post internet invention nerds sitting in your mothers basement on your computers all day like geeks

    #1596679

    Northwich Baggie
    Participant
    • :

    And we thought the same about you Ciaran!

    #1598289

    sarky parky
    Participant
    • :

    We have a perspective that you lack, Ciaran. Never mind, perhaps when you’ve been paying attention a little longer, you’ll realise there was an Albion before Pulis, and that the Clown was just a blip on the generally progressive history of WBA. But it still saddens me to think how we marked time to a safety-first beat for the last three years and how the attacking instincts of every player were deliberately stifled. I could weep when I think what he did to our club.

    #1598353

    DH54WBA
    Participant
    • :

    Its what ‘they’ did Sarky. I blame Peace for looking after his own interests at the expense of the club and whilst the Tong will doubtless exact their own retribution in due course we are all left with the consequences.

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