26th
September 2005: Nobody connected with West Bromwich Albion,
be they fans, directors, management or players, can claim to be anywhere
near satisfied with the start that the club has made to the season,
but it is important to maintain a sense of perspective.
As far as matching the expectations of this season with the reality
so far, there is obviously a huge gap, but it is still early in
the season and there are some good signs hidden amongst the bad
results. Obviously, the fact that we have played a number of the
"weaker" Premiership clubs and not picked up points is
a cause for concern, but it is by no means an irretrievable situation
- last season has taught us that much at least. None of us want
a battle like last year, of course, but we should not lose all hope.
Criticism for the players and the manager, in particular, has been
rising in recent weeks, and much of it is deserved. It seems clear
to the fans that the central midfield area is from where many of
the problems seem to stem, even if it is errors in the back four
that have often led to conceding goals, and until Messrs Wallwork
and Johnson are left out of the side, or significantly improve their
performances, Robson will continue to come in for harsh words.
What I struggle to comprehend, however, is the criticism of Jeremy
Peace in general and, in particular, of his support of Bryan Robson
in the transfer market that I read in an article on the
WBAZone site today.
Since Peace took over, Albion have suffered relegation, won promotion
and then stayed up and after each season, they have been able to
invest substantially in the squad. There was the inevitable criticism
of the transfer activity in January 2003, and I will agree that
that period was a failure which left Albion with little hope of
survival, but it did mean that the club was able to invest heavily
in the team in the summer, signing the likes or Rob Hulse, Paul
Robinson and Thomas Gaardsoe, and launch a successful bid to return
to the Premiership.
More money was made available the following summer to bring in
Greening, Kanu (a free transfer, but with big wages), Gera, Scimeca,
Purse, Albrechtsen, Inamoto, Contra and Earnshaw and, when all seemed
lost in January, Peace supported his new manager with the resources
to sign Campbell, Richardson and Chaplow.
Add to that another £9 million spent this summer, this club
have spent close to £35 million since Peace has been Chairman
in transfer fees alone, never mind wages, and, let's not forget,
the club was close to being dead and buried just five years ago.
The failure to sign Shatskikh has been put down to an unwillingness
by JP to pay what was required, but while I was disappointed at
the time, you must consider that players from Eastern Europe are
always a risk. Gera has worked for us, but Spurs found out what
can go wrong with Sergei Rebrov, who was in almost exactly the same
situation as Shatskikh. £5 million for a player who, though
he's scored in the Champions League, remains unproven in the Premiership
and may not settle, against £3 million for an English striker
also unproven in the Premiership, but also thought by many pundits
to be the best striker in the Championship - a close call, but potentially
the right one was made.
WBAZone cite Peace's commitment to improve season by season as
not happening purely because Wallwork and Johnson are in the side,
but that has got nothing to do with the chairman. They claim that,
in comparison to other clubs in a similar situation, Albion have
failed to sign good players this summer. The fact remains that Albion
have spent more that any similarly placed club and have probably
signed players as good as they could've got. Players like Benayoun
at West Ham and Chimbonda at Wigan were complete unknowns that,
so far, have been a success, but I don't remember anybody suggesting
that Albion should sign David Connolly or Marlon Harewood who have
both had decent starts to the season.
Most Albion fans will agree that Peace has given Robson the tools
to do the job - at the moment, those tools are either not working
correctly or are not being employed in the correct manner. Perhaps
the biggest difference between Albion's approach and those of our
"relegation rivals", for want of a better term, is that
our rivals have had to put their new signings straight in the squad
to either sink or swim, and many have swam. Robson feels that he
has a strong enough squad to be able to phase the new faces in,
with Watson and now Curtis the only newbies to be put straight in.
That may have been a mistake, but if so, it is Robson's not Peace's.
Moreover, it is a mistake that our rivals could not have made as
their squads would not support it, and perhaps makes Albion a victim
of their own success.
The reason that Albion fans are so incensed by what they see as poor
team selection is because they see several seemingly untried options
that they feel would be better. West Bromwich Albion now have a squad
of 23 senior professionals who are all capable of playing well in
the first team. It may have been Paul Thompson and Gary Megson that
initially turned the club around, but it is Jeremy Peace that has
taken the club forward to as strong as a position as they have been
in in the last 20 years. I'm not trying to paint a picture that everything
is rosy in the Baggies back garden, far from it, but suggesting that
JP has failed this club in any way is, in my opinion, close to scandalous.
Bryan Robson chose the players to buy, and he picks the team. The
players out on the field have to get the results. JP has given Robson
every support possible for a club in Albion's position, and it is
now down to Robson to produce the results.
One more point to ponder on. A friend of mine happened to see JP
on a train back from Sunderland and he was quite prepared to sit
down and discuss the current situation and heard the view that most
Albion fans agree with - that Inamoto should be in the side. In
reality, Peace would only be able to pass those comments on to Robson
should he decide that is appropriate, but how many football club
chairmen would be willing to have such an impromptu discussion with
a random fan?
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