[Slick_Footwork]

Regarding the backing of Bilic or lack of it. I guess it's open to debate...

On one hand, we did spend more than several other clubs in the league. On the other hand, it seems you need to spend an absolute fortune to be competitive when promoted into the Premier league now. We spent a lot on acquiring players on loan last year.

Personally I'd have liked to have seen him backed more.

BUT... given the limited budget, the players Bilic identified were not right. The guy was blind to what we needed. I saw the same naivity before, under Tony Mowbray.

For me it was absolutely paramount we signed a defensive midfielder in the summer. You simply can't go into the Premier League without a defensive midfielder. And while Jake can tackle, he is a box to box player rather than a defensive midfielder. He doesn't have that natural defensive awareness to sit, track and cover. As for Sawyers, he's a good ball player from deep but I've got shoe boxes with more defensive awareness than he has... at least they wouldn't shy out of a tackle.

With that in mind, why on earth did Bilic identify Krovinovic as number one target? Firstly, he was only bit part last season. Secondly, he's just neat. Pretty much the same as Sawyers.

Then we added Gallagher to the mix, who has been superb. But again, his position is the same as Krovi. Why sign 2 players who operate in the number 10 role, when you don't have a defensive midfielder at the club?

I'll tell you why... Dowling wanted Gallagher, Bilic wanted Krovi.

IMO this is where the relationship started to break down with the board. Dowling didn't want to prioritise Krovinovic, he saw Gallagher as a better option but Bilic insisted on it and continued to press for it. You could see in Bilic's interviews that it was getting personal the way he was pressuring the club publicly in saying "I ask about the progress of the transfer every day", "he's the number one target that I want" and such. The board had no choice to sign him, he'd made it public that if we didn't get Krovi, he hadn't been backed. His signature was do or die!

That's probably why Bilic didn't even pick Gallagher in the squad for the Southampton game and threw Krovi straight in. He wanted to show that his man was the best man for the job and Dowling's man wasn't needed. Bilic said in his interview that Gallagher "wasn't ready", well we knew he was fit because we saw him play a full 90mins in the cup against Brentford 2 weeks before. Had it not been for the fact that we were so terrible against Southampton that it was actually harming Bilic's reputation not to pick Gallagher, Gallagher would probably be training with Kipre right now.

And that's why I still have hopes that Kipre might actually be good. I've only seen him play in the cup,so don't really know how good he is, but clearly Bilic favouring Bartley over him can only be a finger up to the board. In the games against Wigan last season, we saw they were defensively very stubborn and organised. Again, we saw the same thing in the Tony Mowbray era with Mulumbu. He didn't get a look in the year we were relegated under Mowbray when we had a soft centre. Then when Di Matteo came in and he picked Mulumbu, it was clear the player with the bite we needed in midfield was already at the club!

So yes, I established by reading between the lines that the relationship with Bilic and Dowling was strained ages ago. That's one of the reasons why I was surprised he lasted as long as he did after the shocking results. I guess his fallout with Gibbs and playing Phillips at full back was probably the final straw for the board. But the final straw for me was long before, where he failed to identify the right players put his 'mates' over what we actually needed.

In the end, Bilic did get who he wanted. He got Krovi after his public pressure. He got Grant. Probably didn't want Gallagher, Kipre and Button. But got those he pressued for nevertheless.

And shock horror, Krovi isn't a starter like he wasn't last year...

That my friends is why Bilic had to go!

[Salopbaggie]

It’s a COVID year less money all round remember we do not have a big spending money man behind us.Leeds villa Fulham and most premiership clubs have big money backing we don’t. You cannot ruin our club by spending X amount of money we don’t have. We are in a better place financially due to our promotion remember what Jenkins said on leaving it was imperative we got up or things would have had to change. The extra 25mill we could have got through promotion was lost to sky due to none playing and there have been no gate money or commercial money or advertising but we still have to pay all the staff. This is a ridiculous year and a difficult couple of seasons . If and when we do get sold and I’m sure there are things going on we know nothing about I think within the next few months we could possibly be sold.

The extra £25 million we get for promotion? I think it is around £170 million.

[BaggieSteve]

It’s pretty obvious from the contributions in the last two days that we are divided over both the decision to sack Bilic and the subsequent appointment of Allardyce.
I would hope though that we could all agree that Slaven’s behaviour and response to the decision has been outstanding- no element of rancour or bitterness, just a quiet dignity. I guess it’s what we would have expected from him, but it seems worthy of mention nonetheless. I, for one, am highly appreciative of what he did for the club, not just achieving promotion at the first attempt but also for how he raised the club’s image and how he conducted himself as an ambassador for the Albion

[Slick_Footwork]

It’s pretty obvious from the contributions in the last two days that we are divided over both the decision to sack Bilic and the subsequent appointment of Allardyce.
I would hope though that we could all agree that Slaven’s behaviour and response to the decision has been outstanding- no element of rancour or bitterness, just a quiet dignity. I guess it’s what we would have expected from him, but it seems worthy of mention nonetheless. I, for one, am highly appreciative of what he did for the club, not just achieving promotion at the first attempt but also for how he raised the club’s image and how he conducted himself as an ambassador for the Albion

Good point. I think he's a very likable guy.

I'm not sure the players agree after him calling them "not men" last year, or calling Gibbs "stupid" post the Everton game...

But as a fan, I did find him very endearing. Always liked him as a pundit to be fair. Great passion and someone with good footballing principals to boot.

And I think he's a great coach when the going is good, which we saw at the start of last season. Unfortunately I just think he's poor when the going gets tough, gets way too emotional. We saw that after things went south at the end of last season when we started losing games. Constant team changes, formation changes, team selections to say FU to the board (see my post above regarding Gallagher).

If he can calm down, stop making rash decisions lead by emotion and understand that a team needs to earn the right to play when the going gets tough, he can become a very good coach. Grit and fight is vital at this level!

If you're reading this Slav, thanks for the work you have done in the promotion year. Please take my comments as constructive criticism and use them to better yourself in the next job, which I'm sure will not be far away. The calmness in your response to being dismissed is the same calmness you should operate after games. Best of luck and thanks for some excellent performances last season.

And take your earrings out, you're in your 50s FFS!

[Blue Baggie]

It’s a COVID year less money all round remember we do not have a big spending money man behind us.Leeds villa Fulham and most premiership clubs have big money backing we don’t. You cannot ruin our club by spending X amount of money we don’t have. We are in a better place financially due to our promotion remember what Jenkins said on leaving it was imperative we got up or things would have had to change. The extra 25mill we could have got through promotion was lost to sky due to none playing and there have been no gate money or commercial money or advertising but we still have to pay all the staff. This is a ridiculous year and a difficult couple of seasons . If and when we do get sold and I’m sure there are things going on we know nothing about I think within the next few months we could possibly be sold.

The extra £25 million we get for promotion?  I think it is around £170 million.

The £170 million is as follows £100 million paid in 4 installments of £25 million and two possible parachute payments over the next two seasons if you are relegated.

[wba13]

It’s a COVID year less money all round remember we do not have a big spending money man behind us.Leeds villa Fulham and most premiership clubs have big money backing we don’t. You cannot ruin our club by spending X amount of money we don’t have. We are in a better place financially due to our promotion remember what Jenkins said on leaving it was imperative we got up or things would have had to change. The extra 25mill we could have got through promotion was lost to sky due to none playing and there have been no gate money or commercial money or advertising but we still have to pay all the staff. This is a ridiculous year and a difficult couple of seasons . If and when we do get sold and I’m sure there are things going on we know nothing about I think within the next few months we could possibly be sold.

The extra £25 million we get for promotion?  I think it is around £170 million.

You miss read we would have had an extra 25mill if we had not had to be paid back to tv companies. All clubs were short this season because of COVID.  So we recieved around 25mill less than normal.

[theo_luddite]

Very easy to spaff very quickly in this division on wages, transfer fees and agents, er, commission, in this land of the quickly disadvantaged

[Devongone]

If WBA have proved one thing since the inception of the Premier League, it is that there are worse things for a club than going down.

My team Chesterfield went out of the EFL ........ after missing out in Division One play-offs we lost our manager Paul Cook and the best half of our team was out of contract. Dean Saunders got the Managerial post on the basis of a good after-dinner speech. He got a bit of investment from our owner, but not much. It wasn't enough, he used it unwisely and the team was soon heading down and out of Division One. We made a Sam Allardyce style decision and appointed Danny Wilson, a beloved ex-player and safe pair of hands. He saved us from relegation. But our owner by this time was beginning to want out, wouldn't really invest and Danny was left with a deteriorating team and a relegation fight the following season. We sacked our safe pair of hands and we went down by a country mile. Bad decision then followed bad decision and only now in the National League does our ownership issue appear to have been solved and perhaps we might become a football club again.

Loyal WBA fans think staying up and the rights or wrongs of sacking a decent man are the issues. I fear for you in both the decision that was made and the way it was taken. What if Sam keeps you up and isn't given the firepower to keep you clear of the relegation zone next season? Is it then stick or twist time on the managerial merry-go-round? Will a considered decision be taken, or will it be done from thousands of miles away on the basis of old hat information? My fear for you is that this really might not be part of your regular, joyful boing boing, this could that maelstrom that sucks you all down after tasting its first victim. The chants of you don't know what you're doing won't be understood back in China, not because of the language barrier, but because they really don't know.

[wba13]

If WBA have proved one thing since the inception of the Premier League, it is that there are worse things for a club than going down.

My team Chesterfield went out of the EFL ........ after missing out in Division One play-offs we lost our manager Paul Cook and the best half of our team was out of contract. Dean Saunders got the Managerial post on the basis of a good after-dinner speech. He got a bit of investment from our owner, but not much. It wasn't enough, he used it unwisely and the team was soon heading down and out of Division One. We made a Sam Allardyce style decision and appointed Danny Wilson, a beloved ex-player and safe pair of hands. He saved us from relegation. But our owner by this time was beginning to want out, wouldn't really invest and Danny was left with a deteriorating team and a relegation fight the following season. We sacked our safe pair of hands and we went down by a country mile. Bad decision then followed bad decision and only now in the National League does our ownership issue appear to have been solved and perhaps we might become a football club again.

Loyal WBA fans think staying up and the rights or wrongs of sacking a decent man are the issues. I fear for you in both the decision that was made and the way it was taken. What if Sam keeps you up and isn't given the firepower to keep you clear of the relegation zone next season? Is it then stick or twist time on the managerial merry-go-round? Will a considered decision be taken, or will it be done from thousands of miles away on the basis of old hat information? My fear for you is that this really might not be part of your regular, joyful boing boing, this could that maelstrom that sucks you all down after tasting its first victim. The chants of you don't know what you're doing won't be understood back in China, not because of the language barrier, but because they really don't know.

No disrespect but things are a lot different to Chesterfield, I would not have sacked Bilic but as nice man as he is his record over the last 12 months is abysmal and the last 13 games even worse. I understand why he’s gone with the breakdown between him and the board and the results. We have also been led to believe he nearly walked out in October and if the right man had been available after the Fulham match he would have been sacked then. Allardyce became available after Newcastle so we moved quickly to appoint him. How the news broke was all down to a disgruntled agent of a manager who thought his client should have been appointed. As for the owners I genuinely  believe that they are selling up and staying in the premiership is detrimental for them to get a decent price as it will drop dramatically if we are relegated. I must admit I think that Allardyce gives us a better chance of staying up.

[WBA-Josh]

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/...aging-club