Things get taken for granted very quickly in football, such that very often, credit doesn’t get dished out when it’s due.
But the fact that the Albion are sitting in eighth place in the Premier League table, 40 points to our name, is one of the more remarkable stories of the season. For this was a season that began with the inevitable turmoil that a change in ownership creates, however well planned, organised and executed it may be. Having been run by Jeremy Peace since the summer of 2002, the hand over of control to Guochuan Lai could easily have disrupted our measured stride given that the policies and principles of the organisation had been set in place for such a long period.
Instead, the transition has been seamless, on and off the field, with the club thriving amid all of the changes. Much of the credit can be laid at the door of Albion’s new Chairman, John Williams, who initially stepped in to work with Peace and help conclude the change in ownership. Now well settled in his new surroundings, John Williams spoke to us about what we have achieved thus far and what we intend to do in the future.
“Naturally, I’m very pleased with the way I’ve been able to settle into the club over the last seven months and that’s no doubt been helped by the background of the results that we’ve achieved. Generally speaking, I’ve found everybody at the club to be very welcoming, it has a very homely feel to it, people here are very professional, and so they have made that transition period very easy for me.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind when I came into the job with not just the ownership change going on but coming in during the summer transfer window too. Clearly the very fact that we have changed ownership, that is a process that you must not underestimate, there are issues surrounding that which have to be dealt with and that takes time and hard work.
“For the football club, it was a change of chairman as well as owner, that brings more adjustments for everyone, but the proof of the pudding is always in results and I think things have settled down quite well. “My impression of all aspects at the club, be it at the training ground, at the stadium, it’s positive. We’ve had to go through a lot of changes in terms of the ownership, the executive, senior management, but I do think that the strength of the club is that everybody pulls together. There’s a good atmosphere here, people working to the same end, and it is a case here that the sum of the parts is greater than any individual”.
One of Albion’s great strengths over these last seven months has been an ability to retain focus and a belief in our values and principles while those beyond The Hawthorns have questioned the club. Certainly, questions were asked about the success or otherwise of the transfer window, but go and find a club who made better pound for pound investments than Matt Phillips, Nacer Chadli and Allan Nyom if you can.
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Albionship 3000
The Football League resumed just as this season will end, with the Throstles winging their way to Swansea, albeit that back on August 31st 1946, Swansea City were then still just a Town, playing their football on the Vetch Field rather than the Liberty Stadium.
Middlesbrough v Albion
We’ve been here before – notably at Hull and Sunderland – but the conundrum is, was this a point won or two spilled.
Chairman - John Williams
Things get taken for granted very quickly in football, such that very often, credit doesn’t get dished out when it’s due.
Jonny Evans - the way he plays . . .
The transfer market. It’s a difficult beast to handle, one fraught with danger, however good your research, however smartly you approach it. There’s always another club looking to steal a player from under your nose, or the player who looks a sure fire winner only to fail once a move is made. You can bring ten new faces in and watch them queue up to flop, or place your eggs in a solitary basket and still be crossing your fingers as the contract is inked.
albion v derby county
this was a 90 minutes that did have all the hallmarks of a classic fa cup tie but unfortunately those hallmarks tend to include the big club losing out to the smaller one after an impassioned rearguard action, helped by a healthy dose of (mis) fortune. on that score, this was the kind of game that has given the fa cup its huge reputation both in this country and around the world, but to be honest, we’d have much preferred a quiet, uneventful afternoon where, in the finish, the form book was upheld.
Darren Fletcher
‘We were pleased that the supporters at least had something to take home with them after following us in such good numbers in terrible conditions’
Albion v Stoke City
Given the demise of alternative football clubs in the locality, Stoke has become our de facto derby game these days and did this one ever live up to that kind of billing, a feisty, feverish, blood and guts encounter that included home heroes, pantomime villains and a fairytale ending where we all lived happily ever after. Or at least the ones who count did – us.
Albion v Sunderland
It’s a mark of Albion’s growing confidence, maturity and, overall, quality that without ever really getting close to our best form, and coming out of the shadow of consecutive defeats, this win over Sunderland was every bit as routine for us as Manchester United’s was for them when they were at The Hawthorns before Christmas.
Tony Pulis
‘We have given ourselves a chance of having our best season in the Premier League era, and we really want to capitalise on that opportunity over these next three months’
Albion V Crystal Palace
The problem with getting used to the finer things in life is that if, on occasion, you are deprived of them, it stings all the more. And that’s exactly what happened against Palace for, after an amazing run of seven home wins in eight Premier League games at The Hawthorns, a run where we’ve been scoring goals and creating chances aplenty, this was one of those afternoons where we could have played until Sunday and still not scored.
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