[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

To fall in love, without exception, is to create one's own religion in worship of a fallible god; and there are few more fallible than West Bromwich Albion. As the unhappy parousia of Tony Mowbray reached its undignified and largely inevitable conclusion last weekend, the curtain effectively fell on yet another season, with the playoffs now only reachable by a set of permutations so unlikely that even American soap writers would think twice about conjuring them up. Not least among the obstacles: Albion would need to win both remaining games, at Cardiff this Saturday and at home to Luton the next, coming off back-to-back Easter defeats and poised on the joint-worst winless away streak outside the top flight in our history (equalling 14 under Keith Burkinshaw in 1994, which we'll duly surpass with anything short of a win tomorrow). Even interim boss James Morrison has tried to keep things realistic in his pre-match pressers, talking only about "positivity" and "restoring pride"; I wish Mozza all the best in the attempt, but it'll take a lot more than eight days to accomplish.

And yet, and yet...

We're the last of the good old-fashioned steam-powered trains.

We'll huff and puff till we blow this world away.

We'll keep on rolling till our dying day.

And you'd better believe: we don't know where we're going, or why we came.

[4evaabaggie]

To fall in love, without exception, is to create one's own religion in worship of a fallible god; and there are few more fallible than West Bromwich Albion. As the unhappy parousia of Tony Mowbray reached its undignified and largely inevitable conclusion last weekend, the curtain effectively fell on yet another season, with the playoffs now only reachable by a set of permutations so unlikely that even American soap writers would think twice about conjuring them up. Not least among the obstacles: Albion would need to win both remaining games, at Cardiff this Saturday and at home to Luton the next, coming off back-to-back Easter defeats and poised on the joint-worst winless away streak outside the top flight in our history (equalling 14 under Keith Burkinshaw in 1994, which we'll duly surpass with anything short of a win tomorrow). Even interim boss James Morrison has tried to keep things realistic in his pre-match pressers, talking only about "positivity" and "restoring pride"; I wish Mozza all the best in the attempt, but it'll take a lot more than eight days to accomplish.

And yet, and yet...

We're the last of the good old-fashioned steam-powered trains.

We'll huff and puff till we blow this world away.

We'll keep on rolling till our dying day.

And you'd better believe: we don't know where we're going, or why we came.

Another great write up which catches the essence of our position, we all knew that our run or ten draws in eleven would lead to this inevitable end, not helped by five defeats in six, the fact we lost doesn’t bother me, it’s the manner in which we lost that does, no effort, no pride, no idea. If you bust a gut and lose then at least you tried but our whimper was inexcusable.

Anyway to the remainder of this pitiful season, we need:-

Coventry to lose to Luton and lose to Boro, 66 points
Boro to lose and then beat Coventry, 66 points
Millwall to lose at least one, 66 points
Draw two 65 points
Draw one lose one. 64 points
Blackburn to draw one and win one 66 points
Win one lose one 65 points
Albion to win both. 66 points.
Coupled with this we have to turn around a two or three goal goal difference with Boro.

Not a lot to ask.
Over to you Footballing gods and or Lady Luck. She hasn’t visited us for a while let alone stayed around. Now could be her time to come good.

Whatever happens Albion will always be in my heart.
COME ON YOU BAGGIES … make us proud.

[4evaabaggie]

So far so good ……..

Stage one complete, Luton 1 Coventry 0 FT one red card each.

Now come on Norwich, Swansea and Watford.

Hopefully we will not shoot our own feet off.

[drewks]

So far so good ……..

Stage one complete, Luton 1 Coventry 0 FT one red card each.

Now come on Norwich, Swansea and Watford.

Hopefully we will not shoot our own feet off.

Blimey 4eva, you're not REALLY clinging on to that 0.0005% chance, are you?!!

[4evaabaggie]

So far so good ……..

Stage one complete, Luton 1 Coventry 0 FT one red card each.

Now come on Norwich, Swansea and Watford.

Hopefully we will not shoot our own feet off.

Blimey 4eva, you're not REALLY clinging on to that 0.0005% chance, are you?!!

I am a baggie ….. yes ….. although my heart was in my mouth as my football app showed Cardiff scoring and then a score correction of 0-0. Hope still alive.

[Salopbaggie]

Sadly I am not even sure we deserve what we have from the first half. Hard to believe this is pretty much the same squad that was sitting comfortable at the top of the table at the start of the season. I think Mozza needs to hand out a few a 'Berahino's', during the break, make them at least pretend they are trying.

[4evaabaggie]

Hope extinguished.

[baggietrousers]

Well now it’s mathematically over, although in all honesty I think we all knew the season was destined to fall into abject failure a few weeks ago, even if we lived in hope.
What is even more concerning right now is, the rebuild required is massive.
Whoever comes in will have very little to work with as most of the current squad are just not good enough to compete at the top of the championship. The new HC will need funds from selling our better players, but who is a better player with any value? Fellows’ stock has absolutely plummeted over the closing weeks of the season and talk of up to £15m for him are just pure fantasy. Maja could still command a decent fee but that’s not a given.
As for those that we need to hang on to, Griffiths has shown promise in goal.
In defense only Heggem and possibly Furlong have consistently stepped up. Bartley is showing his age and despite the ‘love in’ for Styles let’s be honest here, he is the proverbial headless chicken.
The likes of Grant, Swift, Wallace, Diangana, Molumby, Dike need moving on and some of our home grown talent, Taylor / Cleary need to be brought into the fold. Any ideas of signing Armstrong permanently need to be quashed immediately.
The overhaul needed is not going to be easy and it must start with the right appointment as Head Coach, which incidentally we should not be taking weeks and weeks over. Whoever it is will need a lot of time to get things in place for next season and get the right personnel in.
It could be a very barren couple of seasons coming up.

[4evaabaggie]

Baggietrousers, I want to disagree with your above post ….. but I can’t.
All the signposts are pointing to the wilderness, it could be a long long road through the footballing desert and with the current financial setup of the footballing pyramid, we can not compete, our 16 year previous exile from the top flight might look like a weekend away in comparison.
Hate to say it but I currently can not see us being competitive or achieving the greed league again. A very extended stay in the EFL is on the horizon. Pessimistic yes reality possibly.

[Salopbaggie]

I know people keep saying, these players can't hack it and Mowbray had a poor squad to pick from, but lets not forget this same squad sat at the top of the table at the start of the season and only fell out of the top 6 a few weeks ago.

This squad should have had more than enough to get us promoted and I still blame the management keep messing around, including CC. You have quality wingers, you play them on the wing, good centre forwards you always play them up front, not in the middle, the clue is in the name 'Forward'. Granted we did have a lot of injury issues, but managers also need understand their players, take Diang as an example, he need to play either on the left wing or in old money what would be inside left, so what do our managers, do play him mostly coming in from the right. He is a flare player and if he is not playing his best game, his confidence goes and then we see the sporadic appearances as we are now. Look at Wallace tearing the place apart on the right wing with Furlong feeding and overlapping, so lets move him and make him a striker. Yes Fellows made a more than suitable replacement, but that is not the point, it is playing people out of position for no reason and those are just the first two which come to mind. Look at the midfield, easy to see the partnership which really worked, so lets change it and try something else.

This is were our problems lay this season far more than the actual squad. IMO