[Arcane Astral Aeons]

and your probably thinking ......please don`t cos we all know what your like

if i may for once be serious.......bare with me

been supporting us for well over 40 years now
and in i have seen some ......shall i say ...rather less than good managers also some less than good sides.
also seen some good managers and some very good sides,but at the moment the current manager and the current side do not exactly fill me with hope
a manager that basically has not got a clue
players(that i`m sure) aint got a clue what position they are playing from one game to the next
now i know all this may have been said before.

i don`t tend to slate players...as long as they give their all for my beloved club and can walk off the pitch at the end of a game win lose or draw and say"i`ve had a good game and done my job"
i think as supporters thats all we ask for...players giving their all for the 90 minutes
that is not happening at the minute
players fault?
managers fault?
you decide....

last saturday summed it up for me
starting Chadli up front with Berahino.....wtf
mr berahino need to go in january even if we received £1.50 for him

Rondon may not be what we expected
but the guy runs his socks off
has next to no support up front
but gives his all

sorry if i have gone on

hope i made sense(just crawled out the cupboard after a massive thunderstorm)

[Beefy 1965]

if i may for once be serious.......bare with me

This ^^^^^ .......... you ?

hope i made sense(just crawled out the cupboard after a massive thunderstorm)


This ^^^^^^ Made sense

Good old Gareth

[Slick_Footwork]

To be honest, I think TP is nowhere near the worst manager I've seen at the club.

I think the guy has made some garbage signings in the likes of McClean and Chester (to play full back), while McManaman obviously wasn't researched enough - I can only presume it's his lack of fitness or attitude that keeps him out.

BUT the majority of decisions TP makes on the pitch, I can at least put some logic to them, even if I disagree with them.

In 14-15 he picked up a sinking ship that was left by Alan Irvine (who really was a garbage manager). This side had barely won a game at home under Irvine, Clarke and Mel and TP actually managed to turn us into a decent home side. We scored 4 against West Ham, 3 against Chelsea and managed to beat teams around us like Swansea, Southampton and Stoke. He attracted Fletcher who was proven at this level and he made the difference. We looked dead set for relegation and stayed up comfortably.

The following summer he wasn't particularly well backed and the majority of his transfers for 15-16 (Rondon and Evans aside) didn't have a great impact. The football was getting more and more dour.

At this point, I did have frustrations with the manager and his style. But I thought he deserved another shot because of what he'd done in 14-15...

Plus, at times, we really didn't look far off. When you consider how we played at the tail end of the season at Leicester and Spurs away, we looked like we were 3-4 players off a top half side... 3-4 attacking players...

Was TP capable of signing 3-4 good players? That was the question mark, his transfer record is very hit and miss...

But he was the manager so he had to be backed...

This summer, with the new ownership, I was hopeful of really seeing what TP could do with genuine backing. However, in true Albion fashion we are only able to sign one proven Premiership player in Chadli; while Anichebe and Sessegnon who have played their whole careers at this level have gone. Our squad is actually weaker in terms of top level experience.

That's why I feel TP is being treated a bit harshly by some fans at the start of this season.

IMO our squad lacks quality and is getting worse due to players being past their prime. Our best performer over the past 3 years is McAuley who is 36, we're lucky he's still doing it. Fletcher came in and did a great job in 14-15 on a free, but seems to be deteriorating while Olsson is nowhere near Premier League quality anymore. TP has been forced to use Evans at left back because we didn't push the boat out for Schlupp in the summer... Instead we're left with another loan (cheap option) who played a handful of games for Everton last year when their first choice duo were injured.

I'm as frustrated as anyone with the dross we're being served up, but IMO we have to look further than the manager.

The club has been run poorly for 3-4 years now and frankly, it's been joke after joke since the Odemwingie saga. From hiring a manager who can't speak English to rejecting bids for Berahino when he's clearly never going to recapture his form in a West Brom shirt... Then, la creme de la creme is rushing a transfer through on deadline day for a Bosman who could've been signed anytime - Nothing screams more of trying to 'paper over the cracks' of our horrendous transfer window than that...

You're expressing frustrations that TP selected Saido up top this week...

TP always selects Rondon as first choice, but he was playing South American World Cup Qualifiers just a few days before and only arrived back very close to the game. I guess TP didn't think he was fit and as Saido is the only other striker at the club, he didn't have much choice... That's the situation we're in with the lack of backing this summer...

So can we really blame TP for that?

I'm sure when Anichebe was allowed to leave the idea was to replace him. We didn't...

As for Saido; my honest evaluation of TP's interviews over the past 1+ year is that he wanted rid of Saido for a long time and would rather invest in his own player (admittedly, probably a tall bumbling oaf). However, it seems it was the board who persisted in holding out for more cash, probably trying to sell on deadline day... Another failed plan...

So like you, I worry. But I worry about more than just TP...

I worry about the fact we still don't seem to have any money, if you consider that we sold Chester, Lambert and Gamboa; along with receiving a significant sell on when Oxford sold Roofe to Leeds, we didn't spend much at all...

I worry that our board can't seem to have basic conversation with the manager about transfer targets...

I worry that the Chairman is spouting blatant BS in his first message to fans...

And the biggest worry is that no manager can keep this aging, sack of sh*t squad in the league. It's going to be a long, hard season. If TP goes, I hope I'm wrong and someone comes in and gets this squad winning, playing decent stuff. But there's barely any creative players at the club...

[BaggyBomber]

I liked a number of points in Quantum's strange diatribe but Slick's incisive analysis is absolutely spot on, in my opinion.

Beefy you are a one! ;-)

[SpenB]

Can't agree more.

Its one of those things, that unless we know the whole truth, we cant begin to imagine the WHAT's and WHY's.
But... We will never ever know the thruth.

We have a manager thats publicly saying he didnt get the 5 players he wanted.
We have a chairman thats publicly saying we got 5 players (off of a wide sheet of names?).
So which one it true?

Its been said before, how can TP attract desent players etc etc, But Slick is also correct in that the blame must also lie above and beyond TP.
Therefore, what desent players in there right mind (knowing how we (high level) act sometimes) would be attracted to us regardless if TP was manager?

I have mentioned that i'm now living in Scotland, where there are only 2 teams lol. I dread coming in on a Monday morning cus the debates not over "you lost how unlucky" etc. Its all about team selection, why you still insist on keeping Sulky, How stupid are you just to let his contract run out and get peanuts when you could of had £24m for someone that doesnt want to play!

I found the special edition paper the otherday when we won promotion @ wembly with Ozzy. We have come a long long way since then.
But, is it that we /I are expecting to much from us? I don't think so!

I believe we are JUST short of actually getting the final pieces of the puzzle in place. The problem is, we dont know where those pieces are hidding! or cant be bothered looking!

We need the passion back. The belief. The pride! It wont take much to move 5-6 places up the table. Its just being allowed to do it.

[Beefy 1965]

I liked a number of points in Quantum's strange diatribe but Slick's incisive analysis is absolutely spot on, in my opinion.

Beefy you are a one!  ;-)

I know