[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

With spring in the air, the B's are swarming for Albion this week with a brace of bostin' battles versus Birmingham and Bournemouth. It was under Steve Bruce that the Blues last tasted success against the Baggies way back in October 2006; since then, the eight league matches and one cup tie between the sides have yielded six Albion wins and three draws, our most sustained spell of derby dominance since the 1980s. Currently winless in three, though presumably safe from relegation for one more year, Birmingham are particularly susceptible to defeat if they concede first, having recovered only four points all season from losing positions; the lowest tally in the Championship. Nevertheless, the combination of a derby game and a Sunday match - Albion are winless on the Sabbath since July 2020 - may make this encounter a little more unpredictable than we'd like.

Bournemouth then visit the Hawthorns next Wednesday with a promotion position to consolidate. Logic says that what we did to Fulham on home soil we can also do to the Cherries, though they may be a bit less casual in their approach. Anything is really a bonus in this one, but four points from the two games overall would keep the playoffs just in sight and give us something to aim at in the season's closing weeks.

[talkSAFT]

Clear handball somehow missed by ref. (s/b Albion pen)

[talkSAFT]

1-0 Blues (pen).
My bookie's giving me 1000/1 for promotion.

[Salopbaggie]

Still so many schoolboy errors and far to often they are passing the ball to people facing their own goal. There is just no imagination or skill, cut all their wages, that's what I say, for Premier League wages I want Premier League players and this teams performances this years, this lot should be on about £80 a week.

[Baggiebob(BBB)]

That's it. If we can't beat a Birmingham side, what hopes of beating teams above them? I can see us going down the league rather than up to the play-offs which would be a miracle.

[drewks]

Massive rebuild needed, and not just the playing side

[BaggieSteve]

They build you up, give you false hope…and then revert to type. As Drewks rightly said, massive rebuild needed, shift out the crap, and I include the manager/coach/cabbage in that. If we renew this guy’s contract in the summer, the club needs its collective head examined. He is symptomatic of the club - no ambition, no plan, no passion. Don’t ask me who should replace him, I’ve no idea but that doesn’t mean we can’t find someone better. Steve Bruce ran his course 10+ years ago; I know he got a ton of unpleasant stick from the Newcastle fans, which was at times shocking, but they were right in their overall analysis- he should have been pensioned off years ago.
Suggestions for a replacement on a postcard; I’ll start off with Lena Zavaroni, Graeme Norton or Billy the Fish. All would be preferable to the present incumbent

[Stairs]

The dream is over. But that said it could have been a big nightmare and so maybe this is the best outcome.

Let’s hope we have a big change and invest in young or unknown talents.

I watched the Brian Clough Nottingham Forest film on Netflix and so, recognising that Steve Bruce is no Brian Clough, it is still the way to go.

[4evaabaggie]

Pre Pulis we were an established mid table premier league club, we were finally lording it over and looking down on the seals. We were over achieving for our budget and finances, a bit of ambition and a couple of gambles might have taken us to the next level. Which would have been our ceiling level, financially, even with the extra Midland fans we could have taken from the seals and the dingles.
Instead we stood still, played it safe, struggled, the more we tried to stop the slide on a shoestring the more we slipped, then in a series of fire sales, we went for crisis managers, dinosaurs that were well past their best.
We stopped trying new talent, youth and finding out rough diamonds and went for misfits journey men and mercenaries, and the more we sank.
A massive re build, start with a new owner, then rebuild downwards, sort out the leakage of academy talent, improve scouting systems, and please please please get in footballers, with skill vision and a desire to play for the shirt. Finally a massive massive injection or pride and ambition.
Forever a baggie, albion til I die.

[Baggiebob(BBB)]

The dream is over.  But that said it could have been a big nightmare and so maybe this is the best outcome.

Let’s hope we have a big change and invest in young or unknown talents.

 I agree with all you have said. It would have been a mare had we been promoted, so now its time to look to the lower leagues for young talent and abroad, and start playing our own youngsters instead of farming them out to say Villa.