[drewks]

Tony Pulis........then our board for keeping him on too long in such a bad, bad run ....
The board (with hindsight,  for appointing AP) ....
...Alan Pardew,  for being so crap and not apparently  offering 1% of motivation.......
But SURELY - it's the players who must take a massive portion of blame pie. The last few weeks have really proved what we've thought all along - that we are more than good enough to survive, even be comfortably in mid table. Why did the players not perform for TP,  then even more so for AP? THEY are the ones that have under performed,  not been professional, and have led to us being relegated.
With very few exceptions they should be ashamed.......I look forward to a mass clear out in the summer to rid us of the players who do not seem to care .

[silverbaggie]

I also blame the owner and the Board for not sacking Pardew once it became obvious that the man had lost the respect of and, could no longer motivate,the players.

OK maybe it might have cost us £2M in compensation for not allowing Pardew the remaining games to turn things around but, surely our impending relegation to the Championship is, in monetary terms, going to cost a hellava lot more in the long run.

Football Management must be one of the few occupations where failure is rewarded by massive pay outs.

[4evaabaggie]

Silver, when the board realised Pardew had lost the dressing and was unable to motivate the team anymore would have made his the shortest managerial career in history ....... sacked before or just after your first game.

[bomberbrown1968]

Pardew should have gone the minute we landed back from Barcelona in disgrace, if ever there was a clear sign of a lack of respect that was it.

Would you dare misbehave if Big Dave had told you not to ?

[Slick_Footwork]

As you suggest, blame can be attributed in several places, but I believe the overall blame has to go with the board.

Too many weak and poor decisions.

When he left, Hammond suggested that Pulis was responsible for all of the transfers. If that is true, then the board should've had the balls to stand up and veto things which were obvious mistakes.

1) When Fletcher decided not to renew, the vast majority of fans were reasonably happy. After all, one of the failings last season was the lack of legs in an ageing squad. When TP went to the board with the suggestion of Gareth Barry as Fletcher's replacement, this should've been a red flag that he was losing the plot. The board should've vetoed this move.

2) At £15m, we should've scouted Oliver Burke more thoroughly and known for sure that he was ready to be part of the plans for this season. I simply don't think we're big enough to pay this sort of money for 'potential' and it was obvious we needed an injection of players who were ready to make an impact given our run at the tail end of last season. I have a sneaky suspicion he could be a revelation in the Championship next season, but he wasn't the right signing at the right time given our plight.

3) The failure to replace Gareth McAuley was criminal. We knew we needed this for a long time and we never acted on it. Hegazi has come in, tried hard and been okay - but isn't anywhere near big Gareth's level. Many of the winning positions we have had and lost is due to our lack of ability to defend set pieces. This was never a problem in all the time McAuley was playing.

4) We should've sold Evans and replaced him with someone better in the air, to play alongside Hegazi and help aid the problem above. Don't get me wrong, I think that the offers we received for Evans were not worth his true value, but in hindsight, it was a poor move. The board and coaching staff should've been on the lookout for replacements in advance and knew that his mind wasn't with us after we turned down the moves.

5) The board should've acted on TP earlier. The falling out with Chadli was a massive red flag that we were going to struggle, as much of our good form at the start of last season came when Chadli was fit and firing. When it was obvious Pulis had lost the plot, the board kept giving him more time. He should've gone straight after the Huddersfield away game when we lost to 10 men.

6) Pardew wasn't the right man for the job. I'm not too sure why he was deemed so, given his recent record screams of failure. That said, the board also failed to get rid of him at the right time too. I was honestly convinced they were not sacking him for some sort of financial reasons. The fact he was eventually sacked makes it even more glaringly obvious at the mistakes that the board have made.

.

As for the modern day players, they have far too much power. Can go out on the p*ss, perform like s*it and get the manager sacked and then just move on. As far as I'm concerned, this is a problem for all clubs and ours have shown a huge lack of professionalism this year. I honestly don't have any affection with any footballers as people anymore.

While Pardew's tactics were poor, that doesn't really give them an excuse for not trying.

Brunt and McClean have already spoke out to slag Pardew and while what they are saying is probably accurate, I think it shows a lack of professionalism. Pardew was their boss and even if his decisions and tactics were sh*t, that was the job he was employed to do. Slagging him is effectively slagging everyone above him too.

But I guess, who can blame players, after all, they can just move on.

I keep watching our games and hearing commentators say things like 'I can't see someone of the quality of Jake Livermore playing in the Championship'. Well, this sums up the hype of the Premier League. Livermore has a couple of *unjustified* England caps and suddenly he's far too good for the Championship. In reality, this is a player who is so heavy he can barely run, couldn't score in a brothel and goes out on the p*ss and steals a taxi when we are bottom of the table while wearing team colours. But is it any wonder players have so much power when you can perform like this and still get a move? If that pudding would've been able to score in an empty net at Arsenal away earlier in the season, we might not even be in this mess.

.

So yes, the players have a lot to answer for, but they are a law to themselves. Better boardroom decisions throughout the season could've saved our bacon though.

[WBA-Josh]

100% what Slick said.

Regarding Pardew’s sacking, I think he wasn’t sacked earlier than he was because the club’s management had become resigned to relegation like most of us fans had. With hindsight, if they had more faith, sacked Pardew earlier and gave the job to Big Dave, we could be currently on the way to staying up.