[wba13]

Some are ready to condemn Bruce but do you know he arrives hrs before the players and leaves hrs after them and some are having a go at him. It’s also stated that Bruce, Gourley and the board are in tandem and that big changes are needed.
If you want an insight on the probable changes at the Albion listen to the Masi podcast in the Express & Star.
In his opinion there is a chance only eight of the currant squad could be left next season, Button, Griffiths, Ajayi, Townsend, TGH, Dike, Grant and O’Shea.
This podcast is an insight into some problems at the Albion. I know Masi is only a fan but he does have some inside knowledge.
Also when asked if we were interested in Jed Wallace he replied no comment. Next season will come round quicker than normal so instead of having a pop at Bruce get behind them.

[4evaabaggie]

He has done pretty poorly in terms of the football played and the points return achieved. However, I don't think many managers could have achieved a lot with our squad. You can't win a formula one race in a Ford focus. Love the albion, I always get behind the manager and the players, always will.

But as I have said before the greed league has killed my interest in football, the bias towards the few, the bend over backwards, kiss arse attitude of the governing bodies towards their gentlemen's club of six has fuelled my apathy and I now can barely summon a passing interest in any results including our own. I always knew who and when we were playing, but this season I have on occasions not even realised we had played. But that's not to say the losses don't hurt and the wins still lift my heart.

Albion til I die.

[wba13]

Yes agreed he has done poorly with 3 other managers players, the same players that got 2 managers sacked { Bilic and Ismael}and one who hadn’t got the bottle to do the rebuild {Allardyce } he saw what the players were like and left. Bruce on the other hand has seen what the players are like and decided he Gourley and the board are now on the same page of getting rid of the the dross and start again.
Hope it comes off he has done it before but not on this scale.
I’m a season ticket holder and will go as long as my health lets me. I’m different to most I never lose interest.

[Blue Baggie]

Yes agreed he has done poorly with 3 other managers players, the same players that got 2 managers sacked { Bilic and Ismael}and one who hadn’t got the bottle to do the rebuild {Allardyce } he saw what the players were like and left. Bruce on the other hand has seen what the players are like and decided he Gourley and the board are now on the same page of getting rid of the the dross and start again.
Hope it comes off he has done it before but not on this scale.
I’m a season ticket holder and will go as long as my health lets me. I’m different to most I never lose interest.

I think your being a little hard on Sam he walked away knowing we were not going to buy Diange, NSK, Gallagher or Okay and 15 players were to be dumped including £17m for Pereira.
His transfer budget was basically nowt.
I never liked him tbh but I couldn't blame him for getting out.

[wba13]

Yes agreed he has done poorly with 3 other managers players, the same players that got 2 managers sacked { Bilic and Ismael}and one who hadn’t got the bottle to do the rebuild {Allardyce } he saw what the players were like and left. Bruce on the other hand has seen what the players are like and decided he Gourley and the board are now on the same page of getting rid of the the dross and start again.
Hope it comes off he has done it before but not on this scale.
I’m a season ticket holder and will go as long as my health lets me. I’m different to most I never lose interest.

I think your being a little hard on Sam he walked away knowing we were not going to buy Diange, NSK, Gallagher or Okay and 15 players were to be dumped including £17m for Pereira.
His transfer budget was basically nowt.
I never liked him tbh but I couldn't blame him for getting out.

Sorry but cannot agree, as soon as he new his signings hadn’t kept us up he couldn’t get out quick enough. He new that the club weren’t going to spend x amount of money after the pandemic when he joined. He was a total waste of money in my opinion.

[BaggieSteve]

I share the view of 4Eva in that I also loathe the Premier League and am always happiest when we're playing in the Championship. I know this season has been a complete shambles but we are generally competitive in this league, as opposed to being cannon fodder and just a team to fulfill fixtures in the EPL.

And I think that's where some of our problems lie.

I understand the financial necessity of a club the size of ours to be able to access the obscene riches of the EPL but our internal structure is such that a promotion just means a year of enhanced TV money and plenty of humpings. We come down to the Championship and all we can talk about is the need to get promoted again straightaway: wash, rinse, repeat. Nothing substantial changes, there are no systemic improvements that mean the club is progressing, it's just a cycle of the same short term thinking.

I know this probably sounds like heresy but I'd love Gourlay or whoever to recognise this is a crap model, that we need - as fans - to accept a spell of bottom up growth within the club in which qualifying for the play offs is probably as good as it gets. I've no idea how long such a period in the "wilderness" would take but I just feel that, right now, we are building a short term ambition on the weakest of foundations. There appears to be no recognition that building a squad that could survive in the EPL - as opposed to being relegated at the first attempt - will take time and probably require us to bring through young talent and recruit the same. This then requires the patience of the fans - not easy, I know - and the willingness of the Board to appoint a manager with such a vision. This Board has no ability to do this; both Slaven and Ismael were hired with a recognition that promotion may take time - in Slaven's case he did it in half the time, we didn't give him the proper resources to fully compete in the EPL and then we sacked him. (I know there were issues with both of them, but this is part of our short term thinking).

I don't believe Steve Bruce is capable of doing such a job; he is like so many of his ilk, he cannot see beyond next week. For all his talk of rebuilding the club, his idea of a rebuild will be to bring in some players he already knows from his previous failures, while ignoring the young talent we have in the club. Today we have news he is interested in signing Hourihane, previously it was Longstaff. He knows Johnstone is leaving, so he plays Button rather than Palmer. There is a reason Steve Bruce has managed a shedload of clubs where all the fans were not unhappy when he left. But he has the Albion job because, like him, the Board can't see beyond the end of their collective nose.

Apologies for the rambling post but, right now, I fear for my club because I think we are living from season to season, with no forward planning that will sustain us

[talkSAFT]

Great comments, Steve.
English Football will never again be the same (we're all afraid). I really wish 'The Top 6' had joined The Super League last Year, and that Sky would just f*ck off and leave the rest of us to it. I can't hero-worship vastly-overpaid players any more........as I used to.

[Devongone]

As an outsider I do think you need to be careful what you wish for. Many football fans hate aspects of the Premier League, but add to that a reality check. Imagine how playing away at Weymouth feels and watching your best player, who is scoring enough goals to have you hoping to get back to the EFL, carried off with what looks like a potentially-career-changing injury following a wild tackle, which does not even get the offender sent off. It's not such a huge step. Not long since Yeovil were in the Championship. Oldham made it to the top section and did quite well ........

Re-building a club, gaining promotion sustainably are laudable aims. But part of the truth is surely that properly-run, West Brom' is a top division club with fans who absolutely want that. They don't want to compete with Millwall, Barnsley and Wigan Athletic.

It is only months ago that Ismael's team losing wasn't tolerated by the fans. Not only weren't West Brom winning, but you weren't playing WBA-type football. Yet only months before that Ismael had drawn together a side at Barnsley for next to nowt that were in the play-off zone and causing everyone they played huge problems. Now, to an idiot outsider like me, that looks like the kind of manager, who given time might have built a side capable of going up without the boing boing. In reality as soon as the side started not to win the fans quickly, loudly and persistently made their feelings known and unfortunately you got what you wished for. The players certainly stopped doing what the manager wanted, they weren't prepared to become a better version of Barnsley, so the fans got to watch the worst-version possible of that team. When either the team or the manager has to go there's just one answer. Your wish is our command, but you'd have been better off with Stevie Nix than Stevie Bruce.

Take a look at Huddersfield. Corboran managed them to 20th place last season. This season, spend not available, they are in the play-offs. By accident or design they kept faith in him and it paid off. Baggie Steve is 100% right about giving managers time, but when the fans push the desperate idiots behind the scenes that doesn't happen. They can never be relied upon to see the wood for the hawthorns - some wise guy might say.

Looking at the players you've got I'd be hard-pushed to manage them to a worse league position than they are in. They are massively under-achieving and they are incredibly angry at the world.

Unfortunately simply hating the Premier League and thinking that is the equivalent of happiness is only self-harming. Getting hammered by cash-rich Man City can be dispiriting, but what about when that doesn't happen, you shackle de Bruyne, you realise the false number nine is an opportunity, not one step beyond, and suddenly your young centre forward is clear through the middle, he's gone round Ederson, the crowd can't even breathe as the ball rolls towards the net ...... ? Football is a game and you play games to the highest level you can. If you can play some of the best teams ever, and you can show courage, skill, sportsmanship and sometimes you can even win that is what sport is for. It's about being the best you can be. If all you can be is mediocre then paint yourself beige and head for the waiting room. I don't think beige is for West Brom'. Sometimes that is part of the problem, but equally do you really want to be a stable, sustainable League One side?

[BaggieSteve]

As an outsider I do think you need to be careful what you wish for. Many football fans hate aspects of the Premier League, but add to that a reality check. Imagine how playing away at Weymouth feels and watching your best player, who is scoring enough goals to have you hoping to get back to the EFL, carried off with what looks like a potentially-career-changing injury following a wild tackle, which does not even get the offender sent off. It's not such a huge step. Not long since Yeovil were in the Championship. Oldham made it to the top section and did quite well ........

Re-building a club, gaining promotion sustainably are laudable aims. But part of the truth is surely that properly-run, West Brom' is a top division club with fans who absolutely want that. They don't want to compete with Millwall, Barnsley and Wigan Athletic.

It is only months ago that Ismael's team losing wasn't tolerated by the fans. Not only weren't West Brom winning, but you weren't playing WBA-type football. Yet only months before that Ismael had drawn together a side at Barnsley for next to nowt that were in the play-off zone and causing everyone they played huge problems. Now, to an idiot outsider like me, that looks like the kind of manager, who given time might have built a side capable of going up without the boing boing. In reality as soon as the side started not to win the fans quickly, loudly and persistently made their feelings known and unfortunately you got what you wished for. The players certainly stopped doing what the manager wanted, they weren't prepared to become a better version of Barnsley, so the fans got to watch the worst-version possible of that team. When either the team or the manager has to go there's just one answer. Your wish is our command, but you'd have been better off with Stevie Nix than Stevie Bruce.

Take a look at Huddersfield. Corboran managed them to 20th place last season. This season, spend not available, they are in the play-offs. By accident or design they kept faith in him and it paid off. Baggie Steve is 100% right about giving managers time, but when the fans push the desperate idiots behind the scenes that doesn't happen. They can never be relied upon to see the wood for the hawthorns - some wise guy might say.

Looking at the players you've got I'd be hard-pushed to manage them to a worse league position than they are in. They are massively under-achieving and they are incredibly angry at the world.

Unfortunately simply hating the Premier League and thinking that is the equivalent of happiness is only self-harming. Getting hammered by cash-rich Man City can be dispiriting, but what about when that doesn't happen, you shackle de Bruyne, you realise the false number nine is an opportunity, not one step beyond, and suddenly your young centre forward is clear through the middle, he's gone round Ederson, the crowd can't even breathe as the ball rolls towards the net ...... ? Football is a game and you play games to the highest level you can. If you can play some of the best teams ever, and you can show courage, skill, sportsmanship and sometimes you can even win that is what sport is for. It's about being the best you can be. If all you can be is mediocre then paint yourself beige and head for the waiting room. I don't think beige is for West Brom'. Sometimes that is part of the problem, but equally do you really want to be a stable, sustainable League One side?

Hi Devongone, I think the points you make a spot on and perhaps I didn't express myself as well as I should have. I want my team to play at the highest possible level - regardless of my personal feelings towards that "highest level" league; my issue is the unending cycle and unedifying scramble to get promoted when we are clearly in no fit state to do so. Like all fans, I love the excitement of my team being promoted rather than the mediocrity of mid table life but not if the clear outcome is another season in the EPL of humiliation, just for the sake of the money. I don't want my team being there just so the top 6 can have some fixtures; I want my team to be competitive, accepting they are unlikely to be challenging the usual suspects. I would at least like to be challenging Southampton, Brighton, Crystal Palace and, dare I say it, Wolves and Villa. Last season we were wretched, this season - in a lower division - we have been equally wretched.

In the parlance of football pundits, I want someone to put their foot on the ball and look around, look at the options and then pick the pass. Right now, the keeper has the ball and we're hoofing it downfield. The club is, I believe, stagnating and there seems to be no internal will to break out of that; when your solution to an under-performing manager is to replace him with Steve Bruce, that maybe gives a clue to the brains trust that is running WBA FC.

Devon, you mentioned that we don't want to be competing with the likes of Millwall...I'd have settled for that this season

[Mosestheballwinner]

Mogga is about to leave Blackburn. We should U-turn and move mountains to get him back.