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A big month for The Albion.  
Potential under new ownership with the ability to invest. Equally could be a fire sales to stay afloat as the ownership has not been resolved.

Transfer window will open on Monday 1st January and close on Wednesday 31st.

Rumours so far: Not a comprehensive list so contributions backed up with links please

INCOMING
Keepers:
IN: None
None
Gone/Missed:
None

Defenders:
IN: None
Dexter Lembikisa (Wolves) - (07, TheRealEFL): Returning from Rotherham loan
Callum Styles (Barnsley) - (17 Dec, FootballFancast): Rumoured interest
Conor Bradley (Liverpool) - (15 Dec, WestBromNews): Available on loan, lots of interest
Gone/Missed:

Midfielders:
IN: None
Andray Santos (Chelsea) - (08 Jan, WestBromNews): Attracting interest from many clubs
Kwame Poku (Peterborough) - (20 Nov, Footballfancast): Attracting interest from many clubs
Gone/Missed:
None

Strikers:
IN: Andi Weimann - Loan to end of season
Joe Gelhardt (Leeds Utd) - (14 Jan, Various): Many clubs interested
Jmut Nayir (Fenerbache) - (08 Jan, WestBromNews): Cardiff also interested
Callum Marshall (West Ham) - (07 Jan, FootballFancast): Injuries might make this unlikley
Ben Breton-Diaz (Villarreal) - (18 Dec, WestBromNews): Others interested as well
Kwame Poku (Peterborough) - (17 Dec, FootballFancast): Rumoured interest
Gone/Missed:
None

Rumoured to be leaving
Gone: Jeremy Sarmiento - returned to Brighton
Gone: Taylor Gardner-Hickman - Sold to Bristol City

International Duty Watch
England U21: Griffiths
DR Congolese: Diangana
Ivory Coast: Kipre
Nigeria: Ajayi
Republic of Ireland: Molumby
Scotland: Phillips
St Kitts & Nevis: Harper
Turkey: Okay Yokuslu
USA: Daryl Dike

Current 2023/24 West Bromwich Albion First Team Squad
Youth Players not in the squad are detailed in WBA-1996's Official Development XI Thread

Championship Squad
Goalkeepers:
01 Vacant
24 Alex Palmer: Contract expires June 2026
30 Ted Cann: Contract expires June 2024
33 Josh Griffiths: Contract expires 2025

Defenders:
02 Darnell Furlong: Contract expires June 2025
03 Conor Townsend: Contract expires June 2025
04 Cedric Kipre: Contract expires June 2024
05 Kyle Bartley: Contract epires June 2024
06 Semi Ajayi: Contract expires June 2025
15 Erik Pieters: Contract expires June 2024
16 Martin Kelly: Contract expires June 2024
26 Gonzalo Avila Gordon (Pipa): Contract expires June 2024
34 Ethan Ingram: Contract expires June 2024 - Loaned to Salford
36 Caleb Taylor: Contract expires June 2024
XX Zac Ashworth: Contract expires June 2024 - Loaned to Bolton

Midfielders:
07 Jed Wallace: Contract expires June 2026 
08 Jayson Molumby: Contract expires June 2025
10 Matt Phillips: Contract expires June 2024
11 Grady Diangana: Contract expires June 2025
14 Nathaniel Chalobah: Contract expires June 2024
19 John Swift: Contract expires June 2026
20 Adam Reach: Contract expires June 2024 - Surgery means out to 2024!!
27 Alex Mowatt: Contract expires June 2024
35 Okay Yokuslu: Contract expires June 2026
36 Jamie Andrews: Contract expires June 2024 - Loaned to Grimsby

Forwards:
09 Josh Maja: Contract expires June 2026
12 Daryl Dike: Contract expires June 2026
nn Andi Weismann: Loan from Bristol City
18 Karlan Grant: Loaned to Cardiff all season. Contract expires June 2027
21 Brandon Thomas-Asante: Contract expires June 2027
31 Tom Fellows: Contract expires June 2024
32 Jovan Malcolm: Contract expires June 2024
40 Mo Faal: Contract expires June 2025 - Loan to Walsall

Home Grown Players: A player who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or The Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of 3 seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21) and for the purposes of this definition of “Home Grown Player” a season will be deemed to commence on the date on which the first transfer window closes and expire on the date of the final league match of the season

Disclaimer: Guys, this is just a collection of what I have seen and read. It is not necessarily the truth or indeed all the data out there.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 12TH MARCH KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Well in true Wednesday fashion we were comfortably beaten by struggling Lincoln. We went behind early, from another set piece as Marquis scored from close range. We got back into the game Johnson got down the left and crossed for Berahino to finish from 8 yards. We got to halftime level. Onto the second and while we had chances none troubled the keeper, then Lincoln broke away down the right pulled the ball back and Cuffy fired past BPF. Any chance of a comeback were finished when Marquis fired in from an acute angle.

THE MATCH



Next up and Cambridge make the trip to Hillsborough. They are comfortably placed in mid table and wont be troubling the playoffs and have a 13 point gap to the relegation zone. We drew with these earlier in the season, with FDB getting a late equliser. They are managed by Mark Bonner who has been in charge for 2 years and has a 45% winning percentage, DM has a 41% for a comparison. They have a couple of threats, with Ironside & Smith both netting 13 times, Ironside there lone striker, with Smith coming in from right.

CURRENT FORM

OWLS               -                                                    

CAMB               -                         

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

SEBASTIAN STOCKBRIDGE
Richard Woodward and Declan Ford
Fourth Official : Wayne Grunnill

THE TEAM

Peacock-Farrell
Storey Hutch Palmer
Hunt Byers Bannan Luongo Johnson
Pato Berahino

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Berahino

ATTENDANCE

21657

BML STANDINGS

Pei 13
SCO 12
Wereham 10
Kev 9
Maddix 7
Imre 7
Wash 5
SS 4

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Ipswich Town v Portsmouth
Milton Keynes Dons v Wigan Athletic
Shrewsbury Town v Oxford United
Sunderland v Crewe Alexandra
Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United

HHAHA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

The Dnipro Kids Charity was started in 2005 after a UEFA Cup tie. This is a new BBC News article about the current attempts to help local orphans escape the war zone in Ukraine. Best wishes to all concerned in this effort, but knowing the UK Government's intransigence, I'm not holding out much hope for any refugees.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60660456

The Express and star are reporting that " Ron Gourlay believes Albion’s fans are embarrassed by their football club – with the new chief executive vowing to make changes that will see their pride restored."

The big change seems to be around recruitment, he believes that the transfer strategy and identifying players is one area where big change is needed and while they are not planning on employing a Director of Football in the normal sense, they are looking likely to appoint a head of football operations whose duties will primarily involve identifying players..

Gourlay believes the recruitment decisions should be made by committee, comprising of himself, the manager, medical, financial and administrative experts as well as members of the recruitment team.

“We have made mistakes in the past and we are paying for that at the present time. We have got to get a mixture of recruitment, medical, secretarial, administration, the football side and financial all having a say to make sure we bring in the right players going forward."

He is also saying that, one area of recruitment Albion desperately need to improve is identifying overseas players. Albion previously had a network of international scouts, but they moved away from that model during Tony Pulis’s time as head coach. (Josh fancy a job )

A huge Hibs support will be heading towards Fir Park for this cup tie on Sunday with many fans wondering what Hibs can achieve even if they do "raise their game". I'd expect Shaun Maloney to deploy a hi-press strategy to take on the "steel men" and try to win this crucial match. However, he'll also be aware that we don't score goals in forward positions any more and that is a huge problem in any match, let alone an "all or nothing cup tie". Should he draft in young Josh O'Connor, Gaz's laddie? It's still prob too early in his development, but perhaps it's giving him the thrill of pulling on a 1st team strip in a big match like this one? He scores goals and scored a cracker v Rangers in his last youth match/cup tie. I also wish our long list of injuries would start to recede. We've been so unlucky re injuries and it is even more bizarre that a lotta these injuries apply to players who we signed in January. Anyway lets pray that Hibs play well in front of a vibrant away support and do the biz. C'mon Hibs, keep our footie season alive!

GGTTH

Gamball:
Coventry - Sheff Utd

Others:
Birmingham - Hull
Cardiff - Preston
Millwall - Middlesbrough
Peterborough - Stoke
Man Utd - Spurs
Bolton - Plymouth
Luton - QPR
Everton - Wolves
Arsenal - Leicester

2 bonus balls to play for Derby, Themaclad, Silver, Minizin, Sanjay and SCO.

Altrincham 1-0 Weymouth
King's Lynn 2-1 Woking
Maidenhead United 1-1 Wealdstone
Solihull Moors 1-1 Notts County
Southend 2-1 Grimsby
Wrexham 1-0 Boreham Wood
Yeovil 1-2 Dag & Red


League Table After Matchday 43

Lord Snoots = 456
St Charles = 452
Amelia = 448
Devon = 446
Dancing = 424
Spireitematt = 388

2 points for a correct result
4 points for a correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score      
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Random Badger gives you 2 points

The random badger is used for any random prediction used once in each matchday sequence. For instance, a scorer at a particular match, the number of red cards in the matches or yellow cards or own goals or owt you want really within reason, I do need to be able to check whether it's correct or not. Please don't put stuff like....."Commentator says...."  
The joker   is played for one match in each sequence and if correct you get double points. So if you've predicted 1-0 and it finishes 2-0, you get 4 pts, but if you've predicted 2-0, that's 8 pts. But if you get it wrong, it's minus 2.
Jokers and badgers are optional. You don't have to play one if you don't want.


Cup games:
In the event of a draw, it's half the points if you've predicted a draw when it gets to 90 mins and the full points if it's still a draw after extra time. Half the points will be awarded for correctly predicting the winner of the match if it goes to penalties. Similarly with the badger, if your random prediction is affected by this, it'll be half the points.

Random score generator: I will be using the random score generator again for those who miss predicting, so we shouldn't get some people too far behind that after missing a couple of weeks they lose all interest, because I know it's not easy getting on here every week.
To be fair to everybody, this is going to be like, say if three people in one week miss their predictions, the first one in the table will be given all 0-0, the second one down the line will get 1-0 and the third will get 0-1 and so on, like if there's four missing the 4th will get 1-1, then 5th 2-1, 6th 1-2. and if there are so many missing, might as well pack in.
And if you miss two weeks on the trot, I'll stop until you come back on again. Not doing it for half a season like I did t'other year.  

NEW FOR THIS SEASON: End of season Play Offs.

The one who finishes top of the league will still be champion, but after the season finishes there will be Play Offs between the top 4, with 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd. This will take in stuff like the EFL Play Offs, FA Cup Final, final day of Prima Donna League, European Finals etc. It will be one matchday for the semis and one for the Final. It will be the individual scores for each matchday against the allotted opponent, with some kind of tie breaker for a drawn match.
So last season's matches would've been Baggiebob(BBB) v theo_luddite and jjamez v St Charles Owl and would've given a bit more to play for towards the back end of the season.
The prize for winning will be enormous. Another rep point.

We now have an Appeals Committee set up, consisting of me, myself and I. All appeals must be made before the next Matchday kicks off.

Friday 11th Match:
West Brom v Town
Town scorers:
Baggies scorers:

Saturday 12th March:
Barnsley v Fulham (12:30)
Birmingham City v Hull City
Blackburn Rovers v Bristol City
Blackpool v Swansea City
AFC Bournemouth v Derby County
Cardiff City v Preston North End
Coventry City v Sheffield United
Millwall v Middlesbrough
Nottingham Forest v Reading
Peterborough United v Stoke City

Sunday 13th March:
Luton Town v Queens Park Rangers (12:00)

Tuesday 15th March:
Barnsley v Bristol City
Birmingham City v Middlesbrough
Blackburn Rovers v Derby County
AFC Bournemouth v Reading
West Bromwich Albion v Fulham

Wednesday 16th March:
Millwall v Town
Town scorers:
Millwall scorers:

Blackpool v Sheffield United
Cardiff City v Stoke City
Coventry City v Hull City
Luton Town v Preston North End
Nottingham Forest v Queens Park Rangers
Peterborough United v Swansea City

Table after Matchday 32:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 779 pts
   
2. jjamez = 730 pts
   
3. St Charles Owl = 715 pts
   
4. Lord Snooty = 708 pts
   
5. theo_luddite = 695 pts
   
6. themaclad = 689 pts
   
7. neonfoxinthebox = 677 pts
   
8. SHEP_HTAFC = 636 pts
   
9. ritchiebaby = 606 pts
   
10. WakeyTerrier = 577 pts
    
11. Amelia Chaffinch = 548 pts

Nottingham Forest v Huddersfield Town
The FA Cup 5th round
Monday March 7th - 19:30 ko
at the City Ground

Huddersfield Town travel to West Bridgford to the City Ground on Monday night for a crack at reaching the FA Cup quarter finals for the first time in fifty years. The draw has already been made and as we all know, the prize for the winner of this one is a home tie with Liverpool.

Town of course, are hoping to win the trophy for the second time and it's 100 years since we won it for our one and only time back in 1922. We have reached five Finals before, in 1920, 1928, 1930 and 1938 were the others. Forest have not had as many Finals as us, but they have won it twice. First of all in 1898, then in 1959. The only Final they lost out of the three that they reached was in 1991.

So both teams of the modern era are doing well. We are on an amazing run of 18 matches unbeaten in all competitions, winning the last four. The Trees are unbeaten in six. They have beaten two Prima Donna League sides in the previous rounds, Arsenal's 2nd XI and Leicester City's 2nd XI, both at home. We have had the harder route though, winning away at Premier League Burnley and a tricky home tie against our neighbours Barnsley.

This should be a much harder game for Forest. Huddersfield's head coach Carlos Corberán, should have an almost fully fit squad to pick from and even if he makes a boat load of changes to the starting line up, we should have a stronger line up than their previous opponents.

Forest will have some new names in their team from the one we thrashed 1-0 back in December. In the January window they signed two Bournemouth players, Steve Cook and Sam Surridge. And striker Keinan Davis has arrived on loan from Aston Villa. Talking of Villa, that Villa fan that we used to have is back in the squad, a young man who goes by the name of Joe Lolley.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head, now with 25 wins to Forest's 19, with 17 draws.

We have only been drawn out of the hat with the Trees once before. That was in the 1938/39 season at the 3rd round stage. It was our first FA Cup match since losing the 1938 Final against Preston, when we met up at Leeds Road on a cold Wednesday afternoon in January. Only 5,422 people turned up for this one as the two teams played out a 0-0 draw, but there were 22,304 there at the City Ground on the following Monday for the replay. Town had beaten Portsmouth 3-0 on the Saturday and repeated that scoreline in Nottingham with goals from Billy Price and two from Jimmy Isaac. Town made it all the way to the semis that year before losing out at Highbury against Pompey.

Friday night's line up away at Sheffield Utd:


1 Ethan Horvath - USA international keeper, signed in the summer.
4 Joe Worrall - Centre back, scored against us in 2019.
27 Steve Cook - Ex Bournemouth defender, signed in January.
26 Scott McKenna - Defender from Aberdeen.
2 Djed Spence - 21 year old full back on loan from Boro.
22 Ryan Yates - Scored the late equaliser at Sheff Utd on Friday night.
37 James Garner - Starred in The Great Escape and The Rockford Files.
8 Jack Colback - Played in the PL with both Sunderland and Newcastle.
11 Philip Zinckernagel - Danish winger on loan from Watford.
20 Brennan Johnson - Nottingham born Welsh international.
9 Keinan Davis - Striker on loan from Villa.

Subs:
3 Tobias Figueiredo - Portuguese centre back, signed from Sporting CP in 2018.
12 Jordan Smith - 27 year old, 3rd choice keeper.
16 Sam Surridge - Ex Bournemouth striker, signed in January.
17 Alex Mighten - 19 year old winger.
18 Carlos Miguel Ribeiro Dias - Known as Cafú, another Potuguese lad.
19 Xande Costa Silva - And another Portuguese lad, a winger, signed in the summer.
23 Joe Lolley - Ex Kidderminster Harriers winger.

March the 7th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1910: The Wednesday res (a) Midland League, WON 2-1 (William Grundy, WE Smith)
1914: Bristol City (h) Div 2, lost 1-2 (Frank Mann)
1928: Manchester United (a) Div 1, drew 0-0
1931: Arsenal (a) Div 1, drew 0-0
1936: Arsenal (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Frank Chivers)
1951: Sunderland (h) Div 1, lost 3-4 (Vic Metcalfe pen, Harold Hassall, Jimmy Glazzard)
1953: Birmingham City (h) Div 2, drew 1-1 (Jimmy Glazzard)
1956: Birmingham City (h) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Ron Simpson)
1959: Ipswich Town (h) Div 2, WON 3-0 (Gordon Low, Alex Bain, Stan Howard)
1964: Bury (a) Div 2, WON 2-0 (Len White, Kevin McHale)
1981: Colchester United (a) Div 3, WON 2-1 (Ian Robins, Mark Lillis)
1987: Hull City (a) Div 2, drew 0-0
1989: Reading (h) Div 3, drew 2-2 (Andy Duggan, Craig Maskell)
1992: Shrewsbury Town (h) Div 3, WON 2-1 (Iffy Onuora, Iwan Roberts)
1995: Oxford United (a) Division Two (3rd tier), lost 1-3 (Jon Dyson)
1998: Stoke City (a) Division One (2nd tier), WON 2-1 (Paul Barnes, Marcus Stewart)
2000: Swindon Town (a) Division One (2nd tier), lost 0-2
2009: Millwall (h) League One (3rd tier), lost 1-2 (Gary Roberts)
2015: Rotherham United (h) Championship, lost 0-2
2017: Aston Villa (h) Championship, WON 1-0 (Tommy Smith)
2020: Leeds United (a) Championship, lost 0-2


Played 21. WON 7. Drawn 7. Lost 7.

William Grundy, who scored in 1910, went on loan to Port Vale later in the season and played in the Potteries derby against Stoke. However, the match got abandoned due to a pitch invasion. Now Grundy wasn't the only Town connection in this match. Herbert Chapman was also in the Vale side, as was former Stoke keeper Leigh Richmond Roose, who would play for Town at the back end of the next season. I've written about this fella before and he was a bit of a character and it would seem that he was the cause of the disturbances. And they tell us that hooliganism was a relatively new thing.

Frank Chivers, who scored against Arsenal in 1936, was killed on military service during the war in 1942. Not in action on a foreign field, but as a conscript for mining work in Rotherham. He was killed in a mining accident, aged 32. He played 54 games for Town, scoring 17 times.

Paul Barnes, who scored in the 1998 win at Stoke, was more famous for the two goals he scored in a magnificent win for York City at Old Trafford in a League Cup tie against Manchester United. But once a Terrier, always a Terrier and even though his son, Harvey Barnes was just one year old when dad Paul was at Town, he is still part of the Terriers family and as such, did us all a favour by scoring the goal for Leicester on Saturday that beat Leeds. Good lad.

1. Sweatily Bummed 
   
2. Wants Half Time 
   
3. Dwarf Screen 
   
4. Halfwit Heroines 
   
5. Draw Linesmen 
   
6. Mouse Handle 
   
7. Whoa Bedroom 
   
8. Panty Maestro 
   
9. Major Hooks 
   
10. Steamier