[baggietrousers]

Probably the worst west brom team I can remember. In fact not probably, this IS the worst team I can remember. How on earth have we stooped so low that our team consists of players like Taylor, Bielic, Campbell, Maja, actually no point in naming any more because there’s not one who can be considered good enough to wear the shirt. The odd decent game is not good enough, it’s consistency over an extended period that counts and no one has had that. It doesn’t matter who comes in to manage this squad, this shower of shite is not capable of getting enough points to stay up, and let’s be honest isn’t capable of mounting any sort of promotion challenge. The club is on its knees, it’s actually rotten, and the fans don’t deserve this. I’ve never felt so despondent about my club it’s heartbreaking to see it spiral into the abyss without so much as whimper. We can blame the owners (who are responsible for the recruitment) and the coaches ( who are responsibly for selection and tactics) but even they can not legislate for the atrocious performances from so called professional footballers.

[Blue Baggie]

We're now into the blame game. Well for me it's our owners. No investment and sold our better players to comply with PSR. If our new owners had kept a couple and purchased 2 or 3 quality players. Paid our £39 million debt off we would have had a 6 point deduction but we would be nowhere near getting relegated. They should sell up for £15 million because that's all they have put in.
Our players are not good enough and we won't pay a proper manager to come in and sort things out. Penny pinching has destroyed the club.
Relegation is almost a certainty now.
No chance of coming back up and the likes of MJ, Boatock, will be sold off to offset loses in revenue.
We're going to be the new Walsall.
Real shame but that IMO is what we have become.

[BaggieSteve]

We're now into the blame game. Well for me it's our owners. No investment and sold our better players to comply with PSR. If our new owners had kept a couple and purchased 2 or 3 quality players. Paid our £39 million debt off we would have had a 6 point deduction but we would be nowhere near getting relegated. They should sell up for £15 million because that's all they have put in.
Our players are not good enough and we won't pay a proper manager to come in and sort things out. Penny pinching has destroyed the club.
Relegation is almost a certainty now.
No chance of coming back up and the likes of MJ, Boatock, will be sold off to offset loses in revenue.
We're going to be the new Walsall.
Real shame but that IMO is what we have become.

I absolutely agree, Bluebaggie, that the owners have a real responsibility for this with regard to the appointment of two coaches, both of whom have proven to be both too inexperienced and tactically inept.

However, I don’t agree with your assessment of the financial situation: this club was left in a total mess by Lai and what Bilkul have had to do is slowly (and it is slowly) restore our finances. It’s been painful and it will now most likely prove costly but your solution of taking points deductions while putting in £39 million to clear the debt is, in my view, too simplistic. Just because Leicester took a 6 point hit, there is no guarantee ours would have been the same and it could have mirrored Sheffield Wednesday’s instead. I suspect we haven’t seen the full picture of the state Lai left us in but I fear it may have been worse than we believe.

I think we’d all agree that the current squad is so lacking in ability and fight that it’s pitiful. We need a huge clear out post season of those whose contract is up and we’ll undoubtedly also lose some players we might wish to keep and who would likely do well in league 1 (Johnson, Heggebo). Unfortunately the rest will be unwanted.

I’m not disagreeing with your comments, Blue, on the owner’s culpability, I just think we have to be more realistic

[drewks]

We're now into the blame game. Well for me it's our owners. No investment and sold our better players to comply with PSR. If our new owners had kept a couple and purchased 2 or 3 quality players. Paid our £39 million debt off we would have had a 6 point deduction but we would be nowhere near getting relegated. They should sell up for £15 million because that's all they have put in.
Our players are not good enough and we won't pay a proper manager to come in and sort things out. Penny pinching has destroyed the club.
Relegation is almost a certainty now.
No chance of coming back up and the likes of MJ, Boatock, will be sold off to offset loses in revenue.
We're going to be the new Walsall.
Real shame but that IMO is what we have become.

I absolutely agree, Bluebaggie, that the owners have a real responsibility for this with regard to the appointment of two coaches, both of whom have proven to be both too inexperienced and tactically inept.

However, I don’t agree with your assessment of the financial situation: this club was left in a total mess by Lai and what Bilkul have had to do is slowly (and it is slowly) restore our finances. It’s been painful and it will now most likely prove costly but your solution of taking points deductions while putting in £39 million to clear the debt is, in my view, too simplistic. Just because Leicester took a 6 point hit, there is no guarantee ours would have been the same and it could have mirrored Sheffield Wednesday’s instead. I suspect we haven’t seen the full picture of the state Lai left us in but I fear it may have been worse than we believe.

I think we’d all agree that the current squad is so lacking in ability and fight that it’s pitiful. We need a huge clear out post season of those whose contract is up and we’ll undoubtedly also lose some players we might wish to keep and who would likely do well in league 1 (Johnson, Heggebo). Unfortunately the rest will be unwanted.

I’m not disagreeing with your comments, Blue, on the owner’s culpability, I just think we have to be more realistic

Spot on IMHO, BSteve

[4evaabaggie]

On paper, in recent weeks, we have played four, on paper, winnable games, three teams were, at the time, below us in the league.
Portsmouth, Norwich, Oxford and Charlton, all were having their own issues.
Result, lost three, drew one, scored two and conceded eleven. That in a nutshell is why we’re going down, we have relied to heavily on a defence that can not defend, we have a midfield that has had any attacking intent stifled or coached out of it and various attackers who are strangers to their colleagues because they are so far away and isolated that they have become negated.
I liked the idea of a young hungry coach but we needed one with some idea as to what they were doing and what needed doing. Instead we got two clueless defence minded imbeciles that destroyed the players confidence.
We will get what we deserve, unless Leicester’s appeal fails and they implode more than us …..

[baggietrousers]

The anger / disappointment is raw at the moment, we the fans feel it the most and at times like these our emotions can get the better of us. But where we might not agree on the finer details of the way the club is run now or the financial details, we do all agree that the playing appointments (coaches, playing staff) have been appalling. That is what needs to be addressed ASAP. Most of us can accept losing if the desire, commitment, fight is there, we just won’t accept this rolling over and dying.

[Slick_Footwork]

I think what we've been really short of since Bilkul took over is someone on the footballing side who can identify a good player and what areas need strengthening...

And until that changes, I can't see us doing any good, at any level.

Torbjørn Heggem was a gem at £500k. But if you look at the signings on the whole, they've been dreadful.

When we signed Alfie Gilchrist for £1.5m, I looked on the Sheffield United forums to see what their fans thought of him. They unanimously said he was awful. And from my experience, although we all have differing opinions on the beautiful game, if you have a player who every fan thinks is good or terrible, they are usually right. And it makes you wonder, if I can find out he's probably awful from looking online for 5 mins, who on earth is sanctioning the move?

Tammer Bany reportedly cost £3m and I'm convinced he'll be the next Gianluca Frabotta and never play for us.

As for areas that need strengthening, they really don't have a clue...

I mean, we knew after Alex Palmer was sold in Jan last year that we needed a new goalkeeper. Everyone in the stands could see it. Yet, we had a whole summer window and didn't get one in.

That cost us a lot of points at the start of the season when we were playing okay. And it's bizarre, because for me, a steady old head in goal is such an easy recruitment job.

Likewise, we lost lots of creativity in the summer. Swift, Grady, Fellows. That's a lot of assists. And the only attacking midfielder we got in was Illing-Junior.

It's all good spending big on Heggebo, but a striker is only as good as his service. You can't lose the likes of Fellows and Grady and not replace them.

And the downfall of losing good players and not replacing them started a couple of years back with Yokuslu and Kipre. Replacing Yokuslu with Diakiate is laughable. Diakite couldn't lace his boots.

The fact Wallace is still in our first 11 now sums us up. He's miles past his best but we have no other options as we simply haven't recruited attacking midfielders, despite being desperate for them.

[BaggieSteve]

The anger / disappointment is raw at the moment, we the fans feel it the most and at times like these our emotions can get the better of us. But where we might not agree on the finer details of the way the club is run now or the financial details, we do all agree that the playing appointments (coaches, playing staff) have been appalling. That is what needs to be addressed ASAP. Most of us can accept losing if the desire, commitment, fight is there, we just won’t accept this rolling over and dying.

100% agree Baggietrousers

---

I think what we've been really short of since Bilkul took over is someone on the footballing side who can identify a good player and what areas need strengthening...

And until that changes, I can't see us doing any good, at any level.

Torbjørn Heggem was a gem at £500k. But if you look at the signings on the whole, they've been dreadful.

When we signed Alfie Gilchrist for £1.5m, I looked on the Sheffield United forums to see what their fans thought of him. They unanimously said he was awful. And from my experience, although we all have differing opinions on the beautiful game, if you have a player who every fan thinks is good or terrible, they are usually right. And it makes you wonder, if I can find out he's probably awful from looking online for 5 mins, who on earth is sanctioning the move?

Tammer Bany reportedly cost £3m and I'm convinced he'll be the next Gianluca Frabotta and never play for us.

As for areas that need strengthening, they really don't have a clue...

I mean, we knew after Alex Palmer was sold in Jan last year that we needed a new goalkeeper. Everyone in the stands could see it. Yet, we had a whole summer window and didn't get one in.

That cost us a lot of points at the start of the season when we were playing okay. And it's bizarre, because for me, a steady old head in goal is such an easy recruitment job.

Likewise, we lost lots of creativity in the summer. Swift, Grady, Fellows. That's a lot of assists. And the only attacking midfielder we got in was Illing-Junior.

It's all good spending big on Heggebo, but a striker is only as good as his service. You can't lose the likes of Fellows and Grady and not replace them.

And the downfall of losing good players and not replacing them started a couple of years back with Yokuslu and Kipre. Replacing Yokuslu with Diakiate is laughable. Diakite couldn't lace his boots.

The fact Wallace is still in our first 11 now sums us up. He's miles past his best but we have no other options as we simply haven't recruited attacking midfielders, despite being desperate for them.

Spot on, Slick, we have replaced good players but hugely substandard players. Your comparison of Yukuslu and Diakite is particularly painful, they are night and day