[BC Baggie]

I would like to know what this "big picture" is that those of us who don't want Pulis apparently can't see. From what I've witnessed over the last 9 months, the only things I can see are us becoming the most negative team in Premier League history, being quite rightly vilified by various commentators, falling crowds and a long, painful slide back to the Championship.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me to what I'm missing.

Lets conveniently forget that our slide back to the Championship hasn't been happening for the past 3-4 seasons anyway. 

Forgive me for trying to add a bit of optimism to the forum, seeing as all you lot base the entirety of the rest of the season off the first 8 games we've played. 

Don't let the b*****ds grind you down   , by the way I agree with pretty much all you have said

[silverbaggie]

I'm wondering whether Pulis is in fact a 'fifth columnist'.

Perhaps all the criticism that we Baggies made of him when he was boss at Stoke now means he is seeking revenge on us.
He's going to get us into a 'nailed on' relegation spot then, at the last minute, resign to preserve his own record.

Silver, you know exactly the same thought has crossed my mind but didn't like to say as I would again be branded as being 'silly' !

It was said tongue in cheek Baggieman as I knew you would rise to the bait.

Just to put the record straight.

I'm neither for or against TP at the moment, I honestly believe that 'the jury is still out' on the man.

I'm grateful that he became our saviour last season for I don't think that we had too many alternative Managerial choices at that time.

Nice but dim Tim is now showing his true abilities so, a sigh of relief that he gave our 'nice little Club' a miss.

I think JP might take action if he sees the attendances drop too far but, since most supporters seem to be season ticket holders who have already 'shelled out' from their hard earned money, will that happen anyway?

[Latecomer]

Tony Pulis is THE go-to guy when it comes to avoiding relegation. This is an interesting position for Peace as he either has to get rid of arguably the best PL manager ever at avoiding relegation (and almost guaranteed survival) for playing god-awful football, or keep him and know that he is losing the fans (and arguably the soul of the club) in the process.

The Club has invested a lot in Pulis so far and I think it would be rash to just sack him now. I don't like the guy, never have, but I want to see the Albion really invest in stability and get behind its managers. I'd reassess come the summer but in the meantime not plow any more money into restructuring (off the pitch).

[drewks]

Tony Pulis is THE go-to guy when it comes to avoiding relegation. This is an interesting position for Peace as he either has to get rid of arguably the best PL manager ever at avoiding relegation (and almost guaranteed survival) for playing god-awful football, or keep him and know that he is losing the fans (and arguably the soul of the club) in the process.

The Club has invested a lot in Pulis so far and I think it would be rash to just sack him now. I don't like the guy, never have, but I want to see the Albion really invest in stability and get behind its managers. I'd reassess come the summer but in the meantime not plow any more money into restructuring (off the pitch).

Good post, Laters.
I'm also wanting better football, more adventure and excitement, but at the expense of being in the top flight? Not sure about that at all, and so I believe that stability is key at the moment. To stay up this year with TP MAY be painful to watch but it will ensure stability in the club in it's set up and at the top level. The last thing I'd want is for our club to be completely unable of attracting a manager/coach of reasonable pedigree; I think we WERE in danger of becoming just that club before we appointed TP. Getting rid now will put us into that category again.
Is TP's contract up (in theory) at the end of this season - does anybody know?

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

I would like to know what this "big picture" is that those of us who don't want Pulis apparently can't see. From what I've witnessed over the last 9 months, the only things I can see are us becoming the most negative team in Premier League history, being quite rightly vilified by various commentators, falling crowds and a long, painful slide back to the Championship.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me to what I'm missing.

As I said in the OP, it's that we have a defence which cannot stand on its own two legs (quite literally, in some cases).  If we open up and play attacking football with the players we've currently got, we're going to get annihilated on a weekly basis.  To become a better, more entertaining team, we have to get the building blocks in place first, and that's going to require grinning and bearing some abject dross in the meantime.

Admittedly I'd be a lot happier if someone at the club would actually give us some inkling of a long-term plan, and dispel the fear that the attitude behind the scenes is simply "We've got King Pulis in charge; all will be well forevermore," but that's probably one for the Albion Assembly to tackle.

[May68]

I don't buy this argument that we have to put up with dross because that is the only style our players can play. I reckon we have a stronger squad (in terms of individuals anyway) than several teams that play better football than us. I don't think we're going to get annihilated just because we try and pass it along the ground every now and then.

Since making signings over two windows Pulis has made us more negative and boring. That is the direction things are going in. There is no long-term plan to turn us into an entertaining attacking team. People need to get this into their heads. Pulis was at Stoke for a decade and they were never anything other than dirty, time-wasting, long-throwing plodders.

[Lets-talk-about-Teix]

Pulis has a contract until the end of next season drewks.

IMO can't see Peace getting rid of Pulis any time soon. What is our JP's priority? It's to the stay in the league for next season's TV deal. Pulis will probably do that anyway, so for now we are stuck with him.

The decision will have to be made in the summer though what direction the club wants to go in.  I have personally never been convinced by Pulis here. Not because he isn't a decent manager, I'm just not convinced Pulis and Albion are a fit, like he was at Stoke and Palace. Both of those clubs required a Pulis figure to keep them up and establish them in the top flight. We needed to stay up last season but this is our sixth successive season in the PL so we are pretty well established and most of us have higher expectations than finishing 14-17th kicking and scratching our way to survival.  This season however, there has been no progression despite the money spent, despite the fact we have ripped up the whole DoF structure as he wished, despite the fact Pulis has had all the men he wanted in his backroom staff. And whatever we think of the "Albion way" it is clear a lot of our fans do expect us to play a decent style of football, which wasn't particularly important at Stoke or Palace.

Just not convinced Albion and Pulis will work long-term. But I think that will have to be something for the summer.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

It's not about passing it along the ground (which we should aim to do, and have done effectively at times even under Pulis) so much as it's about our defence always needing our midfield to support them in order to not concede a hatful of goals. All of our last five managers have lapsed into doing this eventually; were they all boring, negative footballing ideologues, or did they each come to recognise that there were fundamental flaws with the players at their disposal which could only be countered by pulling men behind the ball en masse?

I could accept the possibility of one or two managers being naturally cautious, conservative types, but five of them? Including Pepe "ten men in the opponent's half" Mel? That's an awful lot of professional footballing tacticians to get the same thing wrong... unless, of course, they didn't get it wrong at all.

[May68]

All teams need the midfield to support the defence when not in possession. There is (quite a lot of) middle ground between wide open kamikaze football and the sort of style Albion play at the moment. I think all our recent managers explored that middle ground a lot more than Pulis does (and will ever do).
Ska'd you seem to be saying that our dire style of play stems from our defenders being so slow and poor. Pulis has had two windows and millions of pounds to sort this out. If we are too slow in defence it is because he won't sign or play pacey full backs, so even if your argument is true, Pulis is not the manager to turn it around and transform us into a good footballing side.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

But despite exploring that middle ground, none of those managers managed to strike an effective balance, a lot of which was (again) down to the players at their disposal. And when results turned sour, they all got sacked. Bunging another fall guy in with the same resources at this point in time is going to be as much of a disaster as it was with all the others.

Recruitment, full backs etc is one definite area where Pulis is ultimately culpable. That said, Jonny Evans looks like a good signing who (I hope) will be one of the necessary building blocks for a stronger defence. But no, I'm not massively optimistic about future transfer windows right now. The worst thing is, given what's happened in previous windows, there's no guarantee it'd be any better even without Pulis. This club has been making some awful choices on new players for a good few years now, and that's the principal reason we are where we are.

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The cycle we seem stuck in:

1. We have some crap players
2. We play a crap system to accommodate our crap players
3. We sign some better players
4. We force our better players to play in our crap system alongside our crap players
5. Our better players turn crap
6. Return to 1, repeat until relegated/consumed by malignant hatred of football