THE ALBION ROT: WHO'S TO BLAME?
Josh Bland
It is a worrying time to be a West Bromwich Albion fan.
At the weekend the club slumped to yet another league defeat,
away at fellow strugglers
Crystal Palace. The 3-1 loss
hurt Albion, however, what is more worrying for the Baggies' faithful is the
bigger picture. A meagre one win in 14 league games, a total of only 29 league
goals and a fixture list that sees Albion come up against Chelsea, Arsenal,
Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham before the end of the season.
I have maintained since the opening day loss at home to
Southampton, that Albion
would really struggle to keep their heads above water this term. Although my
view was probably rightly brushed off as over-exuberant cynicism in the opening
stages of the campaign (especially after good results against Arsenal and
Chelsea, plus a famous Old Trafford win), Albion's form is looking increasingly
like relegation form, and arguably has since the beginning of 2013.
I wholeheartedly (and heavy heartedly) believe that the
Albion will be relegated this season, and I am part of a large group of
supporters who feel the same way - however, what there does not seem to be is a
consensus on is who is to blame?
The first thing to state is that
Albion have had more of their
fair share of rotten luck this season (the home fixtures against Arsenal and
Aston Villa especially) and have not been helped by a series of disgraceful
refereeing decisions that have gone against them at key times in games. The 94th
minute shocker of a penalty given by Andre Mariner against Chelsea, with Albion
seconds away from breaking Jose Mourhino's unbeaten home record sticks in the
mind, but equally important was the clear penalty not given at Stoke (a game
that ended 0-0), the dubious penalty given to Southampton on the opening day and
just this past weekend a wrongly given spot kick given against Ben Foster whilst
Albion were pushing for an equaliser. If Albion had had those five or so extra
points on the board that they have been cost, perhaps Steve Clarke would still
be in the job, and perhaps Albion would not be fighting for their lives in the
manner they are currently.
However easy it is to hide behind external factors, it could
be argued the crux of the blame has to lie with two groups: the board and the
playing staff.
Whilst I am not part of the group of supporters that are
labelling chairman Jeremy Peace as a man who does not know how to run a football
club - I am however growing impatient of the club cutting corners. The
Albion are run on a very tight
budget, and where possible every expense is spared. I appreciate this puts the
club in a financially very stable position, but this approach always means we
are one bad transfer window away from real trouble. It seems our luck finally
ran out in the summer, with the lack of a replacements for Romelu Lukaku and an
ageing defence. The club were forced into spending £12million on deadline day on
very average players and with no more investment in January (apart from young
Espanyol forward Thievy on loan - who did look lively against Palace), plus the
loss of the popular (if never prolific) Shane Long - the squad looks bulky, but
very very average. Fans are left scratching their heads in bewilderment at the
apparent disappearance of the £50million we are supposed to be receiving for
competing in the Premier League.
Furthermore, the month (more precisely 27 days) that the club
took to replace Steve Clarke with Pepe Mel will not have helped matters. Now
with less time to implement his radically different style of football,
Albion will have to go through a
transition phase they can ill afford. One must hope that they come through the
other side sooner rather than later.
Whilst many people scapegoat novice technical director
Richard Garlick (admittedly a shadow of the brilliant Dan Ashworth in the role),
he is a man under orders from the board and Mr Peace. The blame must go directly
to them. It seems the lack of investment and delay in appointing a new manager
is proving very costly.
And of course, the players are not exempt. Whilst the "West
Brom are too good to go down" phrase of early in the season is seldom spoken
now, we are still most certainly not the worst team in the division on paper.
Supposed Premier League quality players have simply not performed, and a
multiplicity of stale and lethargic performances have left
Albion on the edge on disaster. The defence seems to be leaking
cheap goals, with gruff Swede Jonas Olsson a shadow of his former self and Liam
Ridgwell and Diego Lugano looking awful. There is a chronic lack of creativity
going forward, and an even more chronic lack of goals from the strikers. The top
scorer so far this season is Saido Berahino - a man with only six league starts
and only four league goals. Not since the woeful relegation season of 2008-09
have I seen a string of
Albion performances as bad as some of the ones I have seen this
season (Cardiff, Norwich
and Swansea spring to mind).
Admittedly, since the arrival of new manager Pepe Mel the
standard has increased, and there does appear to be some improvement. However,
one does fear it has come too late. Teams around us seem to be picking up points
- with Fulham and Norwich
picking up surprise points against the Manchester clubs, and with Stoke City,
West Ham and Crystal Palace all seemingly resurgent as well. Unless things
radically improve, Albion will be left lagging at the foot of the table in the
blink of an eye.
The game at the weekend sort of summed up
Albion's season. Defensively
shocking, a big money signing misfiring and topped off by a poor refereeing
decision. With every passing week, the situation seems to get more and more
grave for Albion.
On Tuesday night, the task gets even harder for Mel's
Baggies, with the visit of Jose Mourinho's "fourth place wonders"
Chelsea to the Hawthorns.
Following that is a spell of season-defining games with Sunderland, Fulham, West
Ham and Cardiff at home in quick succession. Unless Albion get a minimum of 9
points from those fixtures, I believe it would spell doom for Albion's Premier
League tenure.
It seems that
Albion are hurtling towards the relegation trapdoor at an alarming
rate. Of course, nothing is set in stone yet in this most open of Premier League
seasons - and I dearly hope
Albion end up by proving me wrong.
I fear however, the mistakes have already been made. And
unless there is a drastic change made in these last 13 games then
Albion will be playing at the
Keepmoat next season rather than the Emirates.
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