Hawthorns Halt

Terry Wills talks about Albion and the end of a season.

At last; this tedious season is over, finishing with the anticipated defeat at Swansea where again the Baggies failed to hold on after taking the lead. Numerous chances were missed, Salomon Rondon the main culprit, meaning the three points carelessly tossed away dropped the Baggies to a finishing position of eighth. Respectable? Yes, but it should have been eighth, above Bournemouth and Southampton, at least.

As I said last week, the horrendous run of dismal performances was equal if not worse than that of the relegated teams and unless money isn’t spent on recruiting quality players we will see fans painfully enduring more of the same come next season. That’s not forgetting some bright performances up until we reached the dreaded forty points mark, but after that…

The loss of Matt Phillips really was a blow. I’m convinced that if he’d been fit and received some of the clear-cut chances he would have converted them, enabling Tony Pulis to stress his weekly predictions, namely, “We have a great bunch of players,” and “I’m optimistic we can finish in a challenging position,” (or words too that effect).

Naturally, speculation is rife regarding fresh blood coming in and possibly some of our ageing squad moving on but with the constant daily reports emanating in the media that we won’t pay over the odds for players, that’s no different from previous administrations’ utterings.

Tony (Mr Marmite), depending on an individual point of view, is continuing to evoke strong emotions amongst fans. Many feel he’s done as well as could be anticipated while conversely many still hold what’s been their opinion since he joined the Baggies, namely ‘Pulis out’.

I know one thing for certain. Next season he young promising players, especially Jonathan Leko, need more playing time than the odd ten or fifteen minutes, and in some cases less, with the senior players. Only then will we find out if hey are as good as we’re being told.

So will it be more of the same, or a change in philosophy? A splash the cash message from our Chinese owner or spend what you can without compromising our all-important Greed League status? Only time will tell.