[Tibby Baggie]

I do enjoy reading your posts Val, always the optimist and it's nice to have those around to balance things out.

It's fighting a losing battle by trying to offer the other side things to the Pulis out brigade though, hell I've even said myself I wouldn't be bothered if Pulis left us.

But the truth is we've been shite for quite some time now and my frustrations are a culmination of the past few season where we've gone from clueless under Mel, spineless under Irvine and now boring under Pulis.

At least we've stayed up despite being boring and just for the record yes I don't have a season ticket similarly to Val because of work circumstances but I get to every game I can realistically make and this doesn't make me an armchair fan.

We're all fans even if we just look up the results or go to every single game, so let's drop the armchair fan nonsense in the bin where it belongs.

[valpayne]

Cheers Tibby entertaining is my business so I like to keep it amusing even if I'm on my soap box. Il be brutally honest I used to despise TP back in his Stoke days but the truth of that is because I was sick of us losing to what I used to call a team of thugs lol! I hated losing to them more than most teams and I hated seeing him on MOTD doing his post match talks (smug bar steward I used to think) when he was appointed however my immediate reaction was firstly- thank de lawd he's on our side now cos maybe we can start beating teams we never used to and I can enjoy some of those smug post match talks. I also thought he was a good appointment because unlike Mel Irvine Di Matteo and a few others at least the guy has premiership experience and knows how to survive in it. I listened to his early interviews and he talks with experience and a good degree of sense and seems to have broad shoulders. He also appears to have a no nonsense approach to the work ethic he expects from these overpaid kids and tackles shirkers and the berahino types head on and puts them in their place I believe he man or should that be boy manages individuals with a fair amount of guile. I agree though 100% with others that it's not really the kind of football I like to see either but we all know this league is about results and this is what TP can and has achieved. I personally feel that over the last 15 years Hodgson looked like the one coach that could have given us what we all wanted an organised defence with some attacking flair but that appointment was very short lived thanks to the bloody FA steal. So we will never know. See my eureka post on here for the last time we had it all IMO oh and didn't that also end very quickly as Man U came knocking along with Real Madrid and back to the dark ages we went

[Tibby Baggie]

Personally I found some of the football under Hodgson just as bad, but it was a period of stability that allowed the club the grow and become better.

Needless to say big victories such as the Molyneux massacre went a long way to endearing Hodgson to most fans but people are very quick to forget some of the dreadfully boring stuff that we endured along with that too.

[valpayne]

Personally I found some of the football under Hodgson just as bad, but it was a period of stability that allowed the club the grow and become better.

Needless to say big victories such as the Molyneux massacre went a long way to endearing Hodgson to most fans but people are very quick to forget some of the dreadfully boring stuff that we endured along with that too.

you're spot on there Tibby it wasn't that much different and Hodgson was also a very defensive come first manager but that's kinda my point. Unless you're minted you simply have to learn to defend resolutely first and foremost or you will get picked off in this division. There are exceptions I must admit Bournemouth have been a breath of fresh air but until recently they were dicing with relegation and have taken some hammerings to. As for leicester well what can you say? good luck to them. But Ranieri was a very good appointment after all and they've unearthed some real gems that nobody else realised would come good so quick. That said you wait and see if they can hang on to all those players when the money boys come knocking in the summer 

[4evaabaggie]

Spoilt ...... maybe the mood is currently the way it is because a lot of new or younger fans have been spoilt with Albion in the ascendancy for the last couple of decades, we have by and large been better than villa, better than blues and we have totally owned the black country with dominance in abundance in the BCD..
Most things since Sir Gary have gone well, they may not be used to the dire 80's and early 90's, and although the yoyo tag has gone we are still the nearly men in cup competitions, how many semis and quarter finals since 78 without one meaningful final (play offs not included due to nature of only four participants).
Mild success breeds massive expectations, look to England and competitions for proof of over expectations after mild victories leading to broken dreams, we all want titles, cups and maybe even euro glory, I hate the current champions league format by the way, but that is not always possible for clubs on our resources, and the system is currently set up to preserve the status quo.
So let's be thankful we are not bluenoses, dingles or worse, seals, let's all laugh at vile and hope our continued growth and improvement brings the football and success that we all crave.

[RainbowTurnedEastStand]

Least Hodgson played proper full backs and was prepared to change moving away from his favoured rigid 4-4-2 formation
to a 4-2-3-1 system which he quickly worked out gave us better performances and stuck with it (sign of a decent manager that)
Pulis will always play 4 centre backs and 3 holding midfielders as it what he knows and works for him so don't be kidding yourself
we`re suddenly going to become this attacking team next season .

[Tibby Baggie]

You can also continue to kid yourself that we were playing champagne football before Pulis arrived as well.

Under Hodgson and Clarke we were a kick and rush side, simple as. We dropped lucky with Odemwingie and then Lukaku. Take those players away we'd have been utterly bog standard.

Anyway other posters seem to be eluding to the fact that they don't like people on here who challenge opinions so I'll be moving to another Albion forum to take part there instead. No point being on a forum where an opinion cannot be discussed or challenged.

[4evaabaggie]

Tibby, what site will people be moving over too., I would rather we all stayed and sorted out any differences like adults,.
In relation to opinions, me, I respect people's views, I may not always agree but I am always happy to discuss.

There are some people that are very entrenched in their anti-Pulis stance and see him as being to blame for all our woes, they will never change, I am usually alternating either side of the middle ground.

[Beefy 1965]

You can also continue to kid yourself that we were playing champagne football before Pulis arrived as well.

Under Hodgson and Clarke we were a kick and rush side, simple as. We dropped lucky with Odemwingie and then Lukaku. Take those players away we'd have been utterly bog standard.

Anyway other posters seem to be eluding to the fact that they don't like people on here who challenge opinions so I'll be moving to another Albion forum to take part there instead. No point being on a forum where an opinion cannot be discussed or challenged.

Tibby don't be like that ......
Like you say everybody is entitled to there opinion.
Pulis has very much split me into which way we take the club forward,
Better the Devil you know for me at the moment.
But what site would be good without debate
We are all in this together i'm Sure Stairs will agree after making this site from nothing a couple of years ago he at least deserves our support,
We don't want to lose anymore good posters including yourself 

[Zinman]

Because the standard of football and level of entertainment has been, with very few exceptions, dire. I accept that things could be a lot worse but I will no longer waste around £1,000 and many hours of my free time being bored out of my mind watching us set out to get a 0 - 0 draw at home to the likes of Villa. Instead I shall join the armchair fans and enjoy the fact that the only thing that matters to me will be the result.
This after 30 years of having a season ticket and watching us home and away during our 3rd division days. I can honestly say that I've never felt so disillusioned with our football as I do today.

I live in London. I'm on a low wage. I work shifts incl saturdays and sundays I can't even dream of getting a season ticket so excuse me if I have to watch from my armchair Zinman but thats the best it can get for me in my position so before you make sweeping statements about armchair fans. I've played football at league level so I think I know a bit more about it than quite a few of you on here. Our team yes OUR team have been progressing very nicely since 2001 IMO. 

We got out the championship consistently at first time of asking (no mean feat as we all know) we've ditched the yo yo tag and we've established ourselves as a prem club for 8 seasons. 

We don't have a money pit chairmen we don't pay high wages and we don't attract big names so you know what I'll take it anyway it comes right now and look towards another season in the prem and not be chewing that tea towel on final day feels good for me.

 If you must insist on finding fault and point fingers then do some thinking and look at the history a bit more closely instead of banging on about Pulis all the time cos its a complete bore now. 
Megson was not a prem manager and was found out very quickly He did however kick arse (good championship manager at best)
Bryan Robson kept us up but it was his legacy not skill and it turned to sh*t very quickly the season after.
Mowbray he had a go didn't he attack attack oh sh*t we just got thrashed again 
Di Matteo championship manager promotion then a 6-0 thrashing by chelsea welcome back to the prem.  
Pepe saved by the bell with a draw after draw bore fest.Does anyone remember all this??? 6-0 losses to teams like fulham ffs 5-0 liverpool 4-0 blue nose and you're all banging on about shots on target pretty football lol!
Irvine. Oh god help us I actually felt sorry for this guy He was and is a totally honest and very decent character but JHC what a dreadful appointment 
Now lets have a look at this period. 
Hodgson defensive minded manager but arguably despite his liverpool fiasco as manager this was the perfect appointment for us and what happened ladies and gentlemen (say it in an alan rickman voice RIP) I GIVE YOU THE FBA. Hodgson and Ashworth gone to England appointed by Football Bloody Association  equaled kiss of death for albion. 

If you're not happy now lets look at other factors. How about some players? Lets start with Odem wingey shall we. Absolute disgrace totally F****d us over then follow that with Sulky Saido> drink driving on his wages??? he could get a helicopter to a bar in australia FFS but he chooses to drink drive then he turns into billy big nob I'm too sexy for my team. Didn't Mozza have a word with this kid in the DR? Or was it a slap.Yes he did coz we need more like players like Mozza than these sulky brats who think they're too good to play for us. 

So to sum up WBA has very little to offer big time managers or players and yet were still in the prem for 8 consecutive seasons whilst villa newcastle and most likely sunderland will join a host of other so called big clubs next season a division below us. So I'm not negative at all I'm looking forward to a future where we may just see entertaining football and win games regardless of who's in charge because quite simply we still have our toes in the big pond and that means we can yet learn to swim with the dolphins next year.

Oh and Zinman if you prefer to join me in my armchair next season and save yer money for a years subscription to the wine warehouse you're very welcome to join me :-)

I'm sorry if my comments upset you and I wasn't having a go at "arnchair fans" merely pointing out that prioorities are different if you are actually at matches rather than looking at results, but I stand by every word I wrote. The football under Pulis may well be effective but it's more boring than at any of my 40+ years watching Albion. So ,if he remains, I will simply choose to save my time and money