Will West Brom Turn a Blind Eye

...100!

Damn it!

comment by ViewItsGonnaBeALongLongSeason (U1581)
posted 3 hours, 18 minutes ago
If we're so crap
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Again, show me where I have said Derby are crap. Do you guys just lie for the fun of it?

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 5 hours, 48 minutes ago
24K is a shocking average attendance for a top-flight team
Of course it's even worse than that. In general there are 3,000 away fans to swell the numbers at The Hawthorns.
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24k isn't shocking considering our capacity, the population of the town and the levels of unemploymemt there and in the West Midlands, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. An extra 10k on the gate would look good but would only increase our income by about 4 million a year. Small beer.
You live in Shropshire, so what. You're just one of the exceptions.
And in general, teams bring around 800-1,400 supporters to The Hawthorns. Only four of five bring more than 2,000.
As for the rest of the comments, I see they've descended to playground stuff, and you lot certainly know how to do that, so I'll leave it there. Enjoy playing in the Championship, and start doing it on the pitch, that's what counts.

comment by aries22 (U1203)
posted 58 minutes ago
comment by ViewItsGonnaBeALongLongSeason (U1581)
posted 3 hours, 18 minutes ago
If we're so crap
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Again, show me where I have said Derby are crap. Do you guys just lie for the fun of it?
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You're very literal. Why so defensive?

Come on lads go easy on Ariis he's always had it in for us since George Thorne left them for our lowly going nowhere Championship outfit.

Given George Thorne's injury record (which Ariis seemed to take great delight in) and fate you'd think time would have diluted the animosity but sometimes old wounds don't heal I guess.

I'm no expert but it seems like in the world of fan based peenhis measuring, Derby have a bigger one but it's currently flaccid, West Brom have a smaller one but are currently enjoying a Tiny Pulis boner that no-one else really wants to see but that they're quite proud of. Until Derby get excited again or someone tells Tiny to make it look better or put it away I guess it is what it is, as the next Alex Ferguson used to say.

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/west-bromwich-albion-fc/2016/10/07/where-are-the-west-brom-away-fans/

All very sobering reading for Aries. All very sad really. "Ever-decreasing attendances". "Fans staying away in protest". "Why is the division you're playing in relevant when the football isn't entertaining to watch?" All this from diehard Baggies fans as well. Enough to make you weep it is.

"Only 4 of 5 bring more than 2,000"

That's 80%.

"Why so defensive?"

It's what the Baggies fans are used to.

to the Express and Star by the way for tracking down 4 (four) diehard Baggies fans. Who says the days of investigative journalism are dead? Not me, not now.

Interesting reading defensive football can be entertaining, the old Italian sides always amazed me but primarily because they were footballers who could actually play on the counter, the defensive shape was coached into them but on the rare occasion's that they did attack they would know what to do with it when they had it at their feet.

I think the problem with Pulis and other hoof baller English managers is they value an athlete who can't really play but can run, and kick others all game, over a football player. With advances in player fitness these teams can keep a talented team at bay for longer than they could before. On the one hand you have a formula for keeping you up but at the risk of destroying everything that makes football enjoyable. I guess if it's part of a longer term strategy, use Pulis for a good few seasons of dire stability and then gradually bring in tika taka creep, maybe you could say the ends justifies the means.

It seems more sense to me though to balance beauty and beast when you're in the lower leagues and then have a footballing platform to build on when you get into the Premier.

Mel Morris seems to base his footballing ethos on Stoke City which is why Nigel Pearson's employment for me smacked of the beginning of the end for football at Pride Park. Thankfully fate and player's deliberately playing 5hit saved us, although we have had to go a bit more functional in our forward play, with nobody north of Butterfield being renowned for their passing game.

Hopefully January will see the tide come back in though.