24-12-2017, 14:49
(24-12-2017, 14:10)WBA-Josh Wrote: I have seen a lot on social media and forums of the blame being affixed to different parts of the club. In my opinion, blame should be given to all involved with the club.
Lai Guochuan
Where is the leadership from the top that we see from owners of other clubs around Europe? We only see and hear from him when he flies in to watch us get battered by one of the top 4.
John Williams and his team (Garlick, the board etc)
The sheer incompetence that these people have shown makes my head hurt. When everything started going to shit back in March and Tony Pulis started losing the plot, John Williams gave him a contract extension over the summer and plenty of transfer money that Tony Pulis wasted like an 8 year old in a sweet shop. Then when a decision had to be made for the good of the club after Tony Pulis finally hit insanity, collective heads were put in the sand and the clubs peril was ignored. Only when the owner was in attendance was a decision finally made.
Tony Pulis and his coaching staff
I have always given Tony Pulis and his coaching staff credit for the job that they did for the club up until the start of 2017. They stopped the rot within the club and made us a team that was safe from relegation. However, since March they have been found wanting. Plan A wasn't working yet it was persisted with and then after building what is a decent squad on paper in the summer, he was seriously found out and his tactical blunders dragged us even further into the shit.
The players
The players that we have are a good enough bunch to stay away from relegation trouble but the lack of leadership on the pitch (I'm looking at the senior players in the squad) and the lack of skill hasn't helped our situation.
Alan Pardew and his coaching staff
I'm not going to rip into Alan Pardew and his coaching staff because they have only been in charge for 5 weeks and I can already see the positive changes in our play but I will question Alan's judgement at certain times. In his 5 matches he has got it right in 3 of them (Palace, Liverpool and Man United) however he got it seriously wrong against Swansea and yesterday against Stoke in 2 very winnable matches. The starting 11 that he picked in both matches and the tactical changes and substitutions made during the matches played a big part in taking 0 points from the 2 matches.
All in all, I still think we will stay up. We are only in December after all but January is a big month and we have to start getting wins soon otherwise we could end up cut adrift at the bottom.
Josh, I think that's a pretty fair summary but I'd take issue on one point. I don't think these players are good enough to keep us up. I think we have a squad packed full of sub-standard PL and Championship level players. In particular, Rondon, Rodriguez, HRK, Livermore, McLean, Nyom, a past it Barry. These are not fringe players, they have all been featuring regularly. Chadli and Greg have been huge disappointments and Philips is never fit . Honourable exceptions would be Evans (about to leave so won't be available to keep us up), Gibbs and Heghazi. Fundamentally, I'm saying the spine of this team is not good enough and gives the lie to the "best squad of players we've ever had". Personally I'd take either of Odemwingie or Long over any of our current "strikers".
I actually think we will go down because we aren't good enough and there appears to be limited or no funds to remedy this.
Who's to blame? I think you're right, Josh, that all have to stand up and be counted but I strongly feel one name above all should take most of the criticism: take a bow Tony Pulis for providing us with a squad of under performing non entities.
![[Image: DR-iBjMXUAAENw1?format=jpg&name=medium]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DR-iBjMXUAAENw1?format=jpg&name=medium)