[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Regarding Pulis, I've felt for some time that we're in danger of becoming like West Ham fans did with Big Sam a couple of years back. Nothing he did for them was ever good enough. They got their wish, he got the boot, and now look at them. Shipped five at home today and the Taxpayers Stadium is half-empty.

Not that I'm absolving Pulis for some of the worse performances and results we've had, but I do wonder how it is that there's such a gulf between how our fans view him compared to Roy Hodgson; who, let's be honest, employed much the same approach to the majority of games. I suspect the major differences are simply that a) we have a negative history with Pulis due to his Stoke years, and b) Hodgson as a man comes across as a likeable, old-fashioned gent - the sort of bloke you're proud to have representing your club in the media - whereas Pulis, as this week's court verdict illustrated, just doesn't have that same honourable exterior.

How much you personally like someone really shouldn't matter in football management as long as they're getting the results (and ideally bringing the performances to match), and at the moment, with a good few pints in me, I think Pulis has earned some renewed faith from us. But I'm still not sure that the fanbase as a whole will ever really warm to him. And so the good work he's done here will probably only really sink in once he's gone, and someone far less competent is at the helm.