Tony Pulis - New West Brom Manager

Paully D

As per David Ornstein of BBC Sport among others:

@bbcsport_david

Breaking - West Brom to appoint Tony Pulis as head coach. Continental model stays but TP control of all 1st team matters inc transfers #wba

Pulis appointment set to be confirmed Thurs, hopes to be in stands at Upton Park. Meeting Peace for 1st time Thurs. Dave Kemp assistant #wba

So Pulis got the control he was seeking. I'm not sure how the "continental model" is staying if Pulis has control of all first team matters mind. One of the main criticisms of him as a manager was his work in the transfer market, buying mostly ageing players for big money who had little to no resale value, so it will be interesting to see what his policy is at The Hawthorns.

Overall, especially considering what he did with Palace, you'd have to say this is as good an appointment as West Brom could hope to make in all honesty. I'd imagine they'll stay up relatively comfortably now.

monkey9

Yep, perfect appointment for West Brom. He was always the obvious choice.

Chrissybhoy

They'll survive relegation handy enough i think with that appointment

pmasterson95

Should just survive. Can see Pulis organising and sorting that defence well. However needs to inject major quality attacking wise to make things comfortable. Ideye and Blanco are disasters. Samaras, Anichebe, Sessegnon contributed nothing so far.

chopperbyrne

Far happier with Pulis than Sherwood.

joe123

Wisdom in my FPL team has just become a lot more solid!

theoneeyedman

joe123 wrote: »

Wisdom in my FPL team has just become a lot more solid!

Ditto

Been to hawthorns a couple of times minutes recent years, and talking to the natives they complain about lack of spending power, and a club basically structured as a championship club in terms of transfers, wages etc. Based on the model pulis used in Stoke, it will be interesting to see what gives at West Bromwich.

Bateman

Seems to suit both parties as a potentially short term ish deal if you ask me.
"Can you keep us up?" was probably the extent of the interview.

Johner

West Brom just sealed a spot in the league for next season, Pulis is god.

nice_guy80

going down
the squad is terrible compared to Palace's last season

Agent Coulson

Pulis should keep them up and quit/get fired during the summer and be ready to get hired by the highest bidder this time next year.

Donnielighto

Doesnt pulis tend to spend relatively heavily, on wages anyway?

CSF

Donnielighto wrote: »

Doesnt pulis tend to spend relatively heavily, on wages anyway?

Yes but he did prove to some extent at Palace that he can cope without it even if he eventually refuses to.

Diabhal Beag

Dunno if this West Brom side under Pulis is a banker to stay up at all.

DVDM93

Anyway one care to speculate shat happened with Paul Jewell? Hired by Pulis then let go a week later. Seems a strange one.

ben.schlomo

DVDM93 wrote: »

Anyway one care to speculate shat happened with Paul Jewell? Hired by Pulis then let go a week later. Seems a strange one.

It was over a cut in wages, Pulis was given a budget to hire his backroom staff, Kemp and Pulis agreed to a cut to allow Gerry Francis be hired but Jewell wouldnt, its now in his lawyers hands apparently.

ctrl-alt-delete

ben.schlomo wrote: »

It was over a cut in wages, Pulis was given a budget to hire his backroom staff, Kemp and Pulis agreed to a cut to allow Gerry Francis be hired but Jewell wouldnt, its now in his lawyers hands apparently.

It is a strange one, Pulis said Francis was always going to be brought in.

So why could the paycut not have been mentioned to Jewell, or even better why not just offer Jewell the amount that the budget would allow.

keeponhurling

Too many cooks....

DVDM93

keeponhurling wrote: »

Too many cooks....

spoil West Broth.

That_Guy

He didn't make another sex tape did he? *shudders*

keeponhurling

DVDM93 wrote: »

spoil West Broth.

Boom! There it is ...

keeponhurling

That_Guy wrote: »

He didn't make another sex tape did he? *shudders*

Paul "Crown" Jewell ?

That_Guy

keeponhurling wrote: »

Paul "Crown" Jewell ?

Not just his football team's that are getting spanked. *vomits*

DVDM93

That_Guy wrote: »

He didn't make another sex tape did he? *shudders*

He did, it's called 'Pulis my Jewells'.

efb

DVDM93 wrote: »

He did, it's called 'Pulis my Jewells'.

You can leave your cap on...

Johner

Doing a fantastic job. Amazing that some people don't rate him as a manager.

Harry Palmr

Hard to argue with the results that's for sure - in a scrap with Everton, maybe Soton to the best of the rest.

Johner

Pulis is god.

Paully D

Sacked today.

He had a relatively decent run mind. Kept them up when he went in initially, then finished 14th and 10th in his two full seasons.

They had been awful this season but 3 years or so is about the longevity of a Pulis type manager.

Swansea next?

Everton?

byronbay2

I didn't think they'd sack him so quickly but that seems to be the way it works now. Amazing how bad West Brom have gotten after being so solid for a long time, especially considering the personnel are more or less the same. That goal Marcus Alonso scored on Saturday (completely unmarked at a set-piece) would have been absolutely unthinkable at this time last year.

I would not be a Pulis fan but don't think he will have any trouble finding alternative employment.

dfx-

The awfully depressing thing about it is that despite his record and the inevitable tailing off into tedium, his phone will be off the hook with enquiries from clubs...

Guy:Incognito

Why would losing to Chelsea be the final straw to the board ? They hardly sat down after the next game and said "well , it's Chelsea next. We'll probably lose by 3 or 4, but if he doesn't get a result we'll sack him"

Why not do it before the international break and give the new manager 10 days to work with the team (or at least right after the break if they are going for a manager involved in it)

pavb2

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Why would losing to Chelsea be the final straw to the board ? They hardly sat down after the next game and said "well , it's Chelsea next. We'll probably lose by 3 or 4, but if he doesn't get a result we'll sack him"

Why not do it before the international break and give the new manager 10 days to work with the team (or at least right after the break if they are going for a manager involved in it)

Think the fans turned on him at the week end which probably accelerated the decision but it could well be a case of 'being careful what you wish for.'

GavRedKing

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Why would losing to Chelsea be the final straw to the board ? They hardly sat down after the next game and said "well , it's Chelsea next. We'll probably lose by 3 or 4, but if he doesn't get a result we'll sack him"

Why not do it before the international break and give the new manager 10 days to work with the team (or at least right after the break if they are going for a manager involved in it)

Theyre next game is away to Spurs too.

I dont see the logic that the board would see the Chelsea game just gone and the Spurs away game as a "deal breakers".

WBA would expect to lose these games 9 tiems out of 10 usually.

Bleating Lamb

Including final period of last season they have won 2 games out of last 22,this season have lowest possession average in Premier League,lowest possession in opposing half and were leaking goals left right and centre.

Pulisball is v much a thing of the past.

dfx-

dfx- wrote: »

The awfully depressing thing about it is that despite his record and the inevitable tailing off into tedium, his phone will be off the hook with enquiries from clubs...

When there is millions at stake to keep a team in the premier league, in fairness to Pulis he is able to give a team a kick up the arse and get the results when needed. Im no fan of his playing style either.

Stevecw

Might slot into the Wales job now I'd say. Done all he can in club football and he is Welsh and is available at the right time.

TheDoc

Stevecw wrote: »

Might slot into the Wales job now I'd say. Done all he can in club football and he is Welsh and is available at the right time.

Might actually let us see if he is all talk about bluster about what he could do with better players.

Hardly surprised to ever here him sacked, his football is horrendous, I'd sympathise with any fan of a club his managing and it's likely as frustrating for the players he coaches who rarely to never get better and typically devalue under his stewardship and never get bigger moves they would like.

Talisman

byronbay2 wrote: »

I didn't think they'd sack him so quickly but that seems to be the way it works now. Amazing how bad West Brom have gotten after being so solid for a long time, especially considering the personnel are more or less the same. That goal Marcus Alonso scored on Saturday (completely unmarked at a set-piece) would have been absolutely unthinkable at this time last year.

That is a part of the problem with the defence - at the start of the season Johnny Evans and Gareth McAuley were injured, Dawson and Hegazy were the stand in defensive partnership and did well.

Pulis broke up the new partnership for the Brighton game in order to accommodate club captain Evans. Evans wasn't match sharp and had a role in each of the goals they conceded. At 2-0 down, Hegazy was substituted when Evans should have been. For the third Brighton goal, Evans tried to stick his knee on a ball that was over six feet off of the ground instead of throwing his head at it, needless to say he didn't connect with the ball and the Brighton player scored with a free header.

West Brom handled Johnny Evans well for his first two seasons at the club but he now appears to have reverted to the injury prone player that was at Man Utd. Gareth McAuley will be 38 before Christmas and looks like the pace of the Premier League is beyond him.

Pulis rejigged the team to field a five man defence to accommodate both players. For some reason Craig Dawson has been playing as right wing back instead of Allan Nyom who is better suited to the role. Dawson is the more defensively solid player but he's not a wing back.

Pulis signed the 36 year old Gareth Barry from Everton and he has started every game in midfield. He has played almost as many minutes as Chris Brunt, Nacer Chadli, James McClean and James Morrison combined which is a big part of the reason that the midfield has been so stagnant and starved the forward players of any support.

If Pulis didn't have such a negative approach to the game, he might have fielded three forward players to compensate for the lack of players available for the midfield - It would have given the opposition something to think about and the fans something to get behind. Salomon Rondon was a goal in 2/3 games forward before he joined the club and has been completely under utilised, with proper support he will get the team goals. Instead Pulis fielded a five man defence and three defensive midfielders. Barry, Krychowiak and Livermore should have been more than capable of screening the back two of Dawson and Hegazy which would have allowed Gibbs and Nyom to go forward from the fullback positions and support the forwards.

The Watford game broke them as a team, at 2-1 up Pulis made two defensive substitutions but the team don't have the players to take the sting out of the opposition. They resorted to stupid fouls which added minutes to the game and in the end Watford got the equaliser which they deserved. Troy Deeney said in an interview after the game that West Brom's unwillingness to play football inspired Watford to keep driving forward.

Since then the West Brom team have looked like they were just going through the motions, post match interviews with players generated the same old cliches that you hear from players when they are no longer arsed to play for the team/manager.

StringerBell

Stevecw wrote: »

Might slot into the Wales job now I'd say. Done all he can in club football and he is Welsh and is available at the right time.

I'd be surprised, Wales play a more progressive style of football then he would have them playing.

Not saying its a non runner but I'd be surprised, it would be an abandonment of what they have been building. Maybe they feel thats whats needed though I suppose. Again, surprised if so.