[bomberbrown1968]

Getting used to the revolving door on the manager/head coach office these past few years, and always makes me smile when we look back on the departing and say what a nice bloke he was which ultimately means he'd failed at what he was being paid to do.

Irvine simply joins the list of Pepe Mel, Steve Clarke, Roberto Di Matteo, Tony Mowbray and many more down the years.

Apart from Hodgson, it's been a long long time since we had someone in charge who did the job well enough to actually attract any interest from other clubs, Ardiles was probably the last and back to Big Ron before that.

Going to be an interesting couple of days, would think if Pulis comes in, he will want control over targets and signings, it will break up the whole head coach regime we've had in place and where would that leave Terry Burton, alternatively Tim Sherwood comes in and works with Burton in the same format that we've had.

Whatever happens, if it's Sherwood or Pulis then without doubt they'll want their own backroom team, so we'll have to get shot of a few more "nice blokes".

Over to you JP, big decision time, only good thing to come out of Irvines appointment is that I'd hope JP wouldn't want anymore egg on his face because he hasn't come out of the last 12 months with any credit.

[Baggie_One]

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/...ich-albion

[Tom_Wba]

Contrary to what people think about Pulis i honestly don't think he'd want full control of transfers if he took over he has worked with a director of football in John Rudge at Stoke and i think he possibly would do again at West Brom. BUT i do think he'd want assurances that the squad would be strengthened year and year and money would be spent if the right targets were available All of which seems fair enough to me!

[Stairs]

Pulis or Sherwood sound perfect for me - on the basis we want a quick fix survival programme aka kick the players up the arse, use the full squad and get some results.

Others look very interesting but I fear they would need more time to tweak the squad and with a 5 game run in to cry about I don't think we have time for them. Maybe in 18 months time if that's all Pulis or Sherwood were prepared to do before applying for a bigger role having got 'turned the Albion around' on their CV.

[Tom_Wba]

^^^^SKY claim he would want full of transfers i'll get my coat ^^^^

[BaggieMan]

Tony Spewless had a dreadful transfer record at Sjoke with his buys. Very few of the players Spewless brought in turned out any good and cost Peter Coates (Bet365) a load of money with his misguided judgement of players. God help us if he was appointed and had full control of the ins and outs at the club.

He was hated at Sjoke for all the boring negative football he dished up with many Sjoke fans not renewing their season tickets. Living in North Staffs, all my mates are Sjokies who relish the prospect of Spewless taking control of the Baggies and producing the same on-field rubbish.

Eddie Howe, Tim Sherwood or Steve Cotterill for me.  The Three Puppeteers out !

[drewks]

As the bomber says above, JP has had far too much 'egg on face' in the last 2 years - he's not going to want any more this time round.
Therefore, I can't see him taking ANY chances on the likes of Howe or Cotterill - although personally I think Steve Cotterill COULD do a good job for us. Surely it MUST be someone with PL/top level experience this time round.....and IMO this may even put Sherwood out of the frame as he only had - what - 5/6 months in charge of Spurs?

So who else is there about with that experience apart from Pulis? Jol anyone? (Please no - the charisma of a boiled sprout )
Zola?

[Bournemouth Baggie]

When you see this, the table for 2014 just says it all. Would it really have been very much worse with Steve Clarke still in charge?

Manchester City 38 27 7 4 56 88
Chelsea 38 27 7 4 55 88
Liverpool 38 23 7 8 31 76
Arsenal 38 20 10 8 19 70
Manchester United 38 19 9 10 25 66
Tottenham 38 20 6 12 6 66
Southampton 38 18 8 12 19 62
Everton 38 16 8 14 7 56
West Ham 38 17 5 16 6 56
Stoke 38 14 10 14 0 52
Swansea 38 14 7 17 2 49
Crystal Palace 38 11 12 15 -9 45
Sunderland 38 10 14 14 -13 44
Newcastle 38 12 6 20 -27 42
Aston Villa 38 10 9 19 -26 39
West Brom 38 8 12 18 -19 36
Hull 38 7 9 22 -22 30

I can't imagine why Eddie Howe would want to come to us, particularly having seen what his reserves did to ours in the Carling Cup

[WBA-Josh]

My opinion on Tony Pulis is fairly outdated because it is based on his time at Stoke. I only watched 1 Crystal Palace match last season (my football watching time is mainly spent on leagues outside of the UK such as Germany) and that was when they beat us. I am having to go off what you other posters have seen and based on what I have read, I am coming around to the idea a bit more. If he makes us a solid team at the back whilst utilising our attacking players properly with attractive football then I can get on board with it.

Sherwood is my personal choice because his persona on and off the pitch will give the players a massive kick up the arse which has been needed for the past year and I believe 100% that he will make us a very attractive team again.

[Zinman]

While anyone would be an improvement on Irvine, I do not want to see Pulis anywhere near the Hawthorne. Yes he played decent stuff for 6 months at Palace where he made good use of what he inherited, but I want someone for the long term who can build something at Albion. The only time Pulis built a team and "style" was the thuggish hoofball at Stoke. I hated having to pay to watch that twice a year and if we started to play that way I would rather spend my Saturday afternoons walking the dogs.