[BaggieSteve]

I'll give you my take if I may?  I will spare you the "Don't forget how lucky you are , we would love a chance at a relegation scrap in the Prem after being out of it for nearly 17 years!!" - actually no I won't spare you from that, I won't chastise you like I would Arsenal fans for complaining but you might want to be careful what you wish for!!  

I see West Brom as an established PL team in a league where any of the bottom 13 teams could go down in any given season!!  Its a league of "pass the baton, its now your turn to go down" but even with the stupid relegation reward money that teams are given there is no divine right for established prem teams to come straight back up.  Pulis is about as solid as it gets in terms of you keeping your PL status, remove him and you may just remove that status for a long time!!

On the other hand, you are an established PL team and while I doubt any of you are expecting to challenge the top 6, I can understand the desire to see the team move forward in terms of attacking play and good performances.  I expect most of the teams like yours shutting up shop when playing the top 6 and almost trying to keep the score respectable, but when you play the rest a bit of ambition and attacking flair is needed while keeping the Pulis defense intact.  So while the performances are dire with little really attacking endeavor and closed shop defending when you do go ahead I can understand that it simply becomes boring to watch, hence the fall in attendances and mood of the fans, particualrly at home!!

So maybe it comes down to your aspirations for WBA, do you treasure that PL place enough to not risk it but have to watch defensive, tight and often boring football or can you accept that once in a while you will either be in the thick of a relegation scrap and even go down, with no guarantee of a quick return and the financial dangers that brings with it???  Cuddly Uncle Tony will keep you up, are you prepared to suffer the consequences of the next man does not??  Of course an inspired new manager choice could send you the other way, but its probably a dead cert that this won't last and eventually you will go down playing cavalier football and searching again for a manager to get you out of the Championship instead.

St Charles, thanks for your post, it was really good. I appreciate you sparing us the "you don't know how lucky you are" guff that is the usual reply of the MOTD and Sky pundits. These are guys for whom nothing exists outside the PL so they cannot contemplate why any football fan would consider a change of manager that might imperil this status. "Just put up with the crap you're being subjected to and be grateful". Neither do I buy the "TP is guaranteed to keep you in the PL" mantra; whilst it's a fact he's never been relegated, this has not become an empirical theory. At some point it will probably happen, possibly with us. If/when it does, can we demand our money back for the dire football we had to watch to prove this theory was b*ll*cks.

I also think your last comment about needing to decide what sort of Albion we want is spot on. For me, it is not PL status at any cost, I believe that is unsustainable. The trouble is that, if you say that, you normally get hit with a list of clubs who have been relegated and who have yet to regain their PL status as if this was a self fulfilling prophecy. If Pulis was to go, I do not accept relegation is a certainty but there are Baggies fans who would have you believe this was inevitable. What sort of Albion do I want? A team that goes out to win, not one that goes out to avoid defeat; one that believes if you have the ball, it's infinitely more enjoyable for your fans than watching the opposition have it for two thirds of the game; one that values creativity and not aaard work; finally one that believes if you've scored one goal or two goals, there is no reason not to try to score more because, by doing so, you'll put more pressure on the opposition and, god forbid, the fans will probably enjoy it.

It's great that, as a Wednesday fan, you comment on the Albion, your contributions are always very welcome