His body language seems to suggest he has tried all he can and I'd be very suprised if theres no vote of confidence soon should results not improve. I don't think he'll survive to make improvements in January.

They look the only obvious relegation certainties at the moment.

On the plus side for him, he is Celtic minded, so will be a popular choice for the Celtic Park hotseat.

I agree, seems a decent bloke but it seems he is fighting a losing battle attempting to get the ball down and play, which is a shame when considering the relative success of Stoke's battering ram tactics.

Yeah, I think the fact Hull and Stoke have had such a good start makes West Brom's (which in another season wouldn't be too bad) look mediocre.

Fancy them, Blackburn (what a squad of dross Paul Ince has) and Sunderland to go down.

Must say that i'm quite surprised with how badly they're doing. I genuinally thought they'd be comfortable this season. They obviously still could be ok but it's not looking very likely. A bit of a shame considering, as LL said, they at least try to play a bit of football.

They made absolutely no signings of any note, what did they expect?

£3 million for Luke Moore - excellent idea. Don't think he even scored for them in the Championship on loan.

They also play Ishmael Miller upfront on his own, I'd love to watch a collaboration of his shots on goal, he refuses to pass when anywhere in or around the goal - a truly awful footballer.

Stoke and Hull have their own set ways to play that are difficult to get to grips with, West Brom try to play attractive football that is only going to see them fail. They were the only team I thought were stick ons this season and it's easy to see why.

In Paul Ince's defence he has had relatively little money to spend and some bad decisions against his team. I don't think he's done that bad a job.

I still hold out hope that Newcastle will go down. They are just as bad as any of the teams you mention.

I'd really like West Brom to stay up, as they genuinely try to play good passing football. I really liked what Mowbray was saying about his team not being able to win the league or the FA cup, so his job was to improve the West Brom players as much as he could, so they can make the most of their careers. Strikes me as being an oddly decent guy, does Mowbray.

In addition, lets not forget Walter Smith wanted to sign Luke Moore for three million, but he chose to stay in England. Another Smiffy masterpiece narrowly avoided there.

Yes, they are, but I have a feeling their home form may end up saving them. I too would love to see them go down.

Sadly fucking Bolton look like snarling their way to 41 points as usual.

Let's wait until Shearer eventually takes the job before we wish ill on them.

I can see him doing an Andy Gray and hovering around the fringes of the job without ever taking it.

Mhowbray's a dick.

It's all very well for him to talk about "sticking to his principles", but if I was a West Brom fan I'd be raging about his comments regarding them "having a duty to develop players to go to bigger clubs, as they're never going to win anything". Although it's inevitable that players will see West Brom as a stepping stone to bigger things, the only "duty" that West Brom's players and management have is to do as well as possible for the fans who shell out a fortune to watch them - regardless of whether or not that involves winning anything.

Anyway, back to the point about his "principles". It's all very well wanting to play attractive football, but only if your players are good enough to do so, which his aren't at that level. There's a difference between trying to stick to your principles and sticking to them to the point that it's damaging to you.

I also hate the fact that, rather than saying that he tries to get his teams to play nice football, he always says that he tries to get them to "play in a certain manner". Any style of play is playing in a certain manner, you tit.

Another annoying habit that he has is the sneering contempt that he seems to have for teams which play in a more physical manner. Er, so you were the Beckenbauer of the 1990s then, Tony? p***k.

I really, really, really don't like him.

[quote name='Makoliunas' date='Nov 24 2008, 13:14' post='2940234'

I really, really, really don't like him.
[/quote]

nothing to do with being a hearts supporter then is it anyway back on topic west brom are stick on to go down also think wigan and sunderland will go down

I still think West Brom, Stoke and Hull will go down.

Surely his abject failure in the English Premiership is "irrellevant"?

At least he took West Brom into the Prem, when Chesney got Coventry relegated (for the first time in 30+ years) he proceeded to take them straight to the bottom of the lower division too.

It would be if you were discussing the failure after a vastly successful 3 and a half year reign as Celtic manager.

Appointing Strachan was a clear gamble. As it is, it turned out to be an absolute masterstroke by the Celtic board.

Good call. WBA don't have enough quality to 'play football'. Anyone who knows anything about football can see that. They try to do it, and they get torn apart when they lose the ball. Hence why they are bottom of the league.

They should try to do what Stoke do, mentioned in a previous post, and that is to batter teams and try to sneak goals here and there, and it work's.

Until WBA get more quality in their team, the tactic's they deploy will see them playing in The Championship next season.

Who would you rather have in charge of your club, Mowbray or Tony Pulis? For me it's not even close.

West brom yes, Stoke maybe, Hull, no chance of them being relegated.

Still think they will stay up, theres a lot of dross in the premiership, and from what I've seen of West Brom they aren't the worst.

Ultimately it's the players who keep the club up or send them down.

Stoke are better equipped player-wise for the battle.

West Brom are going down and I think Blackburn look a good bet to join them and anyone from Wigan, Sunderland, West Ham or Bolton to join them. Been a Newcastle fan it would be great to see Sunderland go down and there's a very good chance they might as they have gone downhill since beating us and there seems to be quite a bit of unrest. Newcastle won't go down as we have proved away to Chelsea and Man Utd we are a decent side and I think we will have a bit to much to go down plus we are lucky that there are teams worse than us.

Why is there no chance of them being relegated? I can't remember exactly but it there not only 6 or 7 points seperating Hull from 18th? It'll be tight this season, only 5 points or so seperating 7/8 teams I reckon this year but the other teams with a bit of experiences will just use their experiences to stay up. The only team outside the three promoted teams that I can see going down are Blackburn.

9

In fairness Mowbray may have been a bit fortunate to be afforded a second attempt at promotion having failed first time round with a team including Kamara, Koumas and McShane. He then got a bit lucky in winning the league with the lowest points total for Champions in over a decade.

Still think there is an excellent chance of Hull going down.

Tony Mowbray by a mile, If I supported West Brom it would be Tony Pulis. Before Mogga came to Hibs you would've said we weren't good enough to outplay Rangers, as it happened we did so on a regular basis. Imo Mowbray could've achieved so much for us but in the end he was let down by unambitious board members and had to leave, but in the end the only reward was the League Cup, which was happily picked up by John Collins.

Think this might just be too big a challenge for Mogga, but even if they come last Mowbray will be a big manager in the future, because he has something different from the Tony Pulis' of this world. Can you actually imagine Stoke being an established Premiership team in 5 years? No, not me either. Shame that someone is trying something different in the hope that his team doesn't just come 17th then go down the next year, and a few bad results and he's getting slated for it.

He could have achieved exactly what Mark McGhee has with Motherwell. Hardly worth hanging about for...

Roy Keane should go. Spent a massive sum at Sunderland, yet they look truely awful at times.

Their next few games are Wigan, Pompey and Sunderland.

If they can't take at least three points from that, I'd think he's gone before Christmas and he doesn't get to suffer a 8-0 thrashing at Stamford Bridge.

He did achieve what McGhee did, and more.

You don't think if Caldwell, Ian Murray, David Murphy, Steven Whittaker, Kevin Thomson, Scott Brown, Guilleme Beuzelan, Michael Stewart, Ivan Sproule, Meruane Zemmama, Derek Riordan, Chris Killen and Garry O'Connor had stuck together they could've achieved more then a third place finish and a league cup win?

What, he's thick?

Of course not. Perish the thought.



I suppose that it'd depend on who the club was. Given Mhowbray's attitude recently, if I was a fan of a club who were likely to struggle in the division that they were in (I'm not, thankfully, Heart of Midlothian FC will be SPL Champions 2008/09), it'd be Pulis. If it was a club with a realistic chance of finishing high up the table, Mhowbray.



Mhowbray's Hivs team was overrated as f**k. You finished third once and, if I recall correctly, fifth twice. Very few of his "wonderkids" have gone on to achieve anything much at the clubs that they've moved on to, in fact most have been found out pretty badly. Two have even ended up back at Hivs with their tails between their legs.

Err, no. Maybe 2 3rd place finishes and a Scottish Cup win. Again, wow.. besides, Hibs couldn't afford to keep these players. Why would Scott Brown want to hang about at Hibs on 2 grans a week when he can go to Celtic and get 10 times that?

Perhaps you can tell us what that squad would have achieved?

The bits in bold are true and as you know yourself, the rest is bollocks.

Of course these players weren't going to be at Hibs forever, but a lot of these players like Brown and Thomson were on long term contract iirc. Eventually they would all leave, but they were all sold at the first oppurtunity. Take in to consideration that Rantic would be weaker without these players then I think Hibs may have done better then third, then fourth, and now 6th two years in a row.

I have no idea how well we could've done if Petrie had matched Mowbray's ambition, but we haven't exactly benefited from our sell at first sight policy have we?

Where did you finish in the seasons where you didn't finish third?

Which of his so called "wonderkids" have done anything when they moved up a level? Whittaker's a benchwarmer at the Diet Hearts, O'Connor's achieved nothing of note, Bhrown was poor last season, Murray and Rhat Bhoy Rhiordan are back at Hivs...who else is there? Oh aye, Caldwell

Erm yes, yes you have. Your financial position is night and day from what it was.

You got incredible fees for that collection of mediocrity. As Makoliunus says, which of them have gone on to achieve anything? Thomson and Brown have done OK, but that's it.

Rangers would be weaker without Sasa Papac. Consider that.