One of the greatest things about sport to me is it’s never-ending ability to generate debate.
My passion and appetite for all things Dallas Cowboys is constantly satisfied as there are any number of hot topics being debated – to wildly varying degrees of accuracy – in all four corners of the globe and at all times of the day or night. Any day or night. When it comes to my first love however (they’re the ones who usually leave your heart a shattered and broken mess, right!?), the debates concerning West Bromwich Albion are much more focused and repetitive. One man is the central figure. One man divides this great club where once numerous could lay claim to such a dubious honour. One man is viewed as either the devil incarnate or alternatively, the saviour.
How, I ask you, can one man divide opinion amongst a fan base to such depths as Tony Pulis has managed to do in his time on the touch line?
The simple answer is that I have got, literally, no answer. Why? Well during his time in charge of our (former?) nemesis Stoke City, Mr Pulis did the exact opposite to what he is now doing. He actually united the fans, so insistent were they that his ‘style’ of football was an utterly embarrassing disgrace to inflict on the viewing public. Friends and acquaintances vowed that they would never watch a Pulis-led Albion, so prehistoric were his tactics.
So what caused the split? Looking back through recent Albion history, Chairman Jeremy Peace (another Albion opinion-divider) has made some peculiar decisions which, in a round about way, have led us to this point. Employing Terry Burton in an office-based, suit-wearing role heading up recruitment was doomed to disaster from the start, with the fish-out-of-water pinning his colours to the managerial mast of Alan Irvine – a renowned coach who had been an abject failure in his two previous roles in the hot seat at lower level Sheffield Wednesday and Preston North End. The less said about the Irvine-era, the better, other than to highlight the fact that at the same stage last season, we were better off for points and goals for than we are this season under Tony Pulis.
Just 4 wins in 19 Premier League matches and constantly wearing the look of someone who had won a competition in order to be managing the club were more than enough reason to see Irvine dismissed and placed on gardening leave with apparently only one man suited to the restoration project that was saving the Albion from relegation. Step forward Mr Guarantee. The autocrat. The fossil. The embarrassment. The necessity.
Far from subscribing to the nonsensical argument that “there’s nobody else out there for the job”, my initial reaction following Irvine’s dismissal last December was that I’d prefer “anybody but Tony Pulis or Tim Sherwood” such was, and still is, my complete and utter contempt – mainly in a footballing sense – for them both, for differing reasons. As the search moved on, remarkably quickly for the Albion by the way, it was evident that Pulis was the choice of a Chairman intent on not losing a penny of the fabled Premier League riches on offer following the extension of the broadcast TV deal, and as the deal that Pulis signed had got a £1m bonus written into it as reward for securing the club’s safety, I found myself clinging to all hope that this was merely going to be a short-term arrangement for the good of Peace’s pocket, sorry, I mean the good of the club, but one that suited all parties nonetheless. Alas, that was not to be the case and we now find ourselves eight matches into the season and just one place outside of the relegation zone, with a fan base fast losing the will to live, so unadventurous and negative are the tactics so predictably being employed.
In his short stint at Crystal Palace, Pulis played the hand he was dealt and made the best out of it as the Eagles were blessed with pace in abundance on the flanks, something the West Brom squad is sadly lacking. This segment of his managerial career fostered a false hope in Albion fans, much like the European Qualifying campaign will have done to England fans, that things might be different this time around. The cold light of day is currently ramming home the fact that ignoring the past will condemn the future, as experts, fans and commentators alike watch on in a knowing disbelief that THIS is the best ‘style’ of football a Tony Pulis side can play, despite a transfer spend of around £40m to go along with a wage bill fast spiralling into dangerous and worrying territory.
Make no mistake about this fact – Tony Pulis has been well-backed and supported by a Chairman and Board who haven’t always been so quick to offer monied helping hands to those of whom they demand satisfy their Premier League wishes. The coaches room is now filled with Pulis-men as opposed to the restrictive regime of the past where apparent job-for-lifers Keith Downing and Dean Kiely held too much sway. Cast your mind back to the resistance against Pepe Mel’s wish to bring in two of his own men in support as Pulis continues to strengthen his coaching hand with the recent addition of Ben Garner joining Dave Kemp, Gerry Francis, Mark O’Connor and Jonathan Gould.
Committing to a style of football and therefore tailoring the staff and the shape of the club to accommodate that is perfectly acceptable but to commit to such a loathsome style is totally abhorrent to me and it is sucking every drop of enjoyment out of what is supposed to be joyful entertainment. The pro-Pulis sector of support will loudly shoot down any dissenter, claiming that all that matters is Premier League survival and the money that brings but from where I stand, anyone who is willing to overlook style, substance, aesthetics, enjoyment and intent in favour of riches that they will never see is merely ensuring their future misery, whilst also lying to themselves about their true feelings towards the ghosts of Pulis’-past.
As a club, we are breeding an exciting crop of youngsters in the Academy system, who are earning plaudits and international age-group call-ups as well as the occasional game day travel spot or even a place on the bench. On the face of it, that is absolutely fantastic and should be applauded and the youngsters match day involvement a welcome sight but when it comes to pitching young attacking talent such as Jonathan Leko or Tyler Roberts into a Tony Pulis side, I have severe reservations. The likelihood is that, much like roughly 33% of every outfield starter selected this season, they would be utilised out of their natural position and deployed in a manner unsuited to their natural game. Consider the fact that Saido Berahino’s average position on the pitch this season is around the half way line for evidence of Pulis’ preferred modus operandi of defence-first football stifling the attacking side of a players game. Do we really want to see talented youngsters who have been raised to play a technique-based, passing style thrust into playing ‘percentages football’ and doubling up in defence with the (unnatural) full backs?
I’m not a dreamer or a fantasist who yearns for European qualification via our final league position, as nice as that would be. I just want my club back. The reigns have been passed to the wrong man, by a man desperate not to see his cash cow’s milk flow slow and this is resulting in a club divided by the ‘Pulisical effect’.
An enjoyable style of football can, and elsewhere does, go hand in hand with Premier League survival, so the notion that it’s this way or relegation is nothing but evidence of a brainwashed fan base who would rather continually highlight Pulis’ past record of avoiding relegation rather than actually carefully considering whether what is currently being served up supports such a theory. To me, it simply doesn’t.
A continued footballing philosophy is what I’d love to see nurtured at West Bromwich Albion and an environment which enables like-minded appointments to flourish and progress. Too much chopping and changing has littered the recent history but stabilising in support of the wrong man and mentality will lead us only down a path which will be extremely time-consuming, not to mention expensive, to find the way out of. Clubs of Albion’s stature and smaller have, and continue to prove that you can play fast-paced, possession-based, intent-laden football in a manner which sees them not only compete, but also entertain the lifeblood of their clubs – us, the supporters. Albion need to rediscover their DNA and dispose of this footballing dinosaur before the next generation of fans are driven away before their disease becomes terminal.
The next three matches see a Sunderland side buoyed by New Manager Syndrome following the appointment of Sam Allardyce visit The Hawthorns before a trip to Norwich and a home match against a Leicester side which is flying high – all winnable matches and all the type that the Albion, not to mention Tony Pulis, can ill afford to lose. A return of 3 points or less would justifiably sound the alarm bells loud and clear. Disheartening as it is for me to say, if I knew that three defeats would bring the curtain down on the Pulis-era, I for one would sign up for that without hesitation. Perhaps then, trips to The Hawthorns would be more than the dutiful chore that they currently are.
