West Bromwich Albion head coach, Tony Pulis, has been under a lot of pressure from the club’s fans due to recent performances. The last two or three months of the season provided a run of form which, if Albion hadn’t have picked up the points at the beginning, would have only led to relegation.
West Bromwich Albion Boss Tony Pulis: Stay or Go?
Tony Pulis has never been relegated with a team that he has managed in the Premier League, and this season has shown some of the reasons why. Despite the recent games not showing the best results, Pulis has been working with a very average squad of players. They aren’t known to play attractive football. When they have tried to do so this season, it hadn’t worked very well and led to Albion conceding goals after making silly mistakes.
Pulis has managed his team to some shock results during, one of which being a draw at the King Power Stadium against division winners, Leicester. Another being a draw at White Hart Lane against Tottenham Hotspur, which happened to shatter Tottenham’s title hopes. Even with these massive results, fans were still against Pulis as they weren’t enjoying the football.
A large portion of the supporters of the club have been very vocal about how they feel about the current head coach, and many of the opinions are exceedingly negative. Even though Tony Pulis achieved survival in the Premier League with a squad of players that were defeated and outplayed by Championship team, Reading, in the FA Cup, some fans still expected better.
The hatred has become so strong towards Pulis from some of the club’s fans that petitions have been created to get him sacked from his position. At the time of writing this, one of the documents had 171 signatures. Here’s a quote written in the page by a West Brom fan; “Pulis is dragging The Hawthorns through the mud. The football is awful and the fans are not getting entertained in the slightest. Why should we renew our season ticket to watch rubbish?”
A massive summer awaits West Bromwich Albion, and Tony Pulis is the man that can help the club progress into the future. Money has to be spent in this transfer window, as there will be definite departures. Victor Anichebe and Stéphane Sessègnon have already been confirmed that they will be leaving the club for free. Saido Berahino will most likely have played his final game in a West Brom shirt, too, as more teams are reported to be interested every week. But Saido has to be sold before next summer as he will be out of contact.
Christian Gamboa and Sébastien Pocognoli will both likely be leaving the club after not looking to be part of Pulis’ plans. Those are five players that will instantly need replacing on top of the other positions that need strengthening. For example, two new wingers, another striker, at least one more centre back and maybe some new players in the centre of the midfield.
So, if Tony Pulis is the man to take West Brom forward into the 2016/17 season, he will have a couple of months ahead. I posit that he is the only person capable of carrying this team through another tough season in the Premier League, and hopefully adding to the squad in the summer and winter transfer windows. Being the survival specialist he is, I think Albion will be safe, as long as owner, Jeremy Peace, invests big money on some younger talent rather than trying to snap up lots of players on the cheap or as freebies. But, if a large cash injection into the club isn’t made, bad times could be around the corner for West Bromwich Albion.
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