[Salopbaggie]

DDI find this incredible. What the F**k is Pulis doing. Surely you pick your team from watching them train. Why make these players train away from the 1st team FFS!!!!!!

I remember Steve Clarke used to pick Nicolas Anelka presumably on the basis of watching him train, but how many of us even wanted Anelka at the club in the first place? I didn't, based solely on the wages he was on, then vindicated by his subsequent off-field actions.
Sometimes there has to be a balance struck between a player's worth to the team and his behaviour. A player's training isn't just about running between cones and five a side games. There is stuff going on behind the scenes with Berahino, and you only have to read what Darren Fletcher has to say about that to realise that maybe Pulis is getting it right.

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But the fact that there are so many outcasts (i.e. 1/3 of the squad) makes me wonder what the common denominator is here, and it looks to me like it is Tony Pulis. Either we have somehow contrived to sign the most unprofessional bunch of players ever put together, or the manager is overly prickly and prone to favouritism.

Or it could be that the manager does what he thinks is best for the team and the dressing room. Would you argue that Alex Ferguson is the best manager we've seen in the past quarter century? He shifted Jaap Stam, Roy Keane and David Beckham from United because for one reason or another they were all causing problems in and out of the team and dressing room. And I don't see anything different that Tony Pulis is doing.

While I understand the point you are trying to make, perhaps not the best example as one thing Ferguson certainly did do differently

Alex Ferguson

Premier League Champions:  1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2000/01, 2002/03, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/13

Manager of the Year:  1993/94, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2002/03, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/13

Manager of the Month
August 1993, October 1994, February 1996, March 1996, February 1997, October 1997, January 1999, April 1999, August 1999, March 2000, April 2000, February 2001, April 2003, December 2003, February 2005, March 2006, August 2006, October 2006, February 2007, January 2008, March 2008, January 2009, April 2009, September 2009, January 2011, August 2011, October 2012

Other Honours

St Mirren
Promotion to Scottish Premier League: 1976/77

Aberdeen
Scottish Premier League: 1979/80, 1983/84, 1984/85
Scottish Cup: 1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1985/86
European Cup Winners' Cup: 1982/83
UEFA Super Cup: 1983
Scottish League Cup: 1985/86
Manchester United
FA Cup: 1989/90, 1993/94, 1995/96, 1998/99, 2003/04
Community Shield: 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010
European Cup Winners' Cup: 1990/91
League Cup: 1991/92, 2005/06, 2008/09, 2009/10
UEFA Champions League: 1998/99, 2007/08
Intercontinental Cup: 1999
FIFA Club World Cup: 2008

Tony Pullis

Manager of the Year:  2013/14

Manager of the Month:  April 2014, February 2015

Other Honours
Gillingham:  Promotion to Division Two 1995/96
Stoke City:  Promotion to Premier League: 2007/08

When Pullis has achieved a quarter of what Ferguson achieved, I for one would not question his methods................ but until then.