Albion’s empty cup

Sunday, 29/01/2012

by Dave Wedgbury, Shoot's West Brom blogger

So much for looking forward to an exciting and pulsating FA Cup run this year!

I woke up yesterday morning full of hope and anticipation. Surely we would beat Norwich at home in order to present the fans with another opportunity to progress in this great tradition of the greatest cup competition in the world?

I maintained this enthusiasm all morning, in fact into the afternoon after eating my dinner I started to imagine the brief encounter with the semi-finals in 2008, when all that stood between us and the final was Portsmouth FC – only to be sent home disappointed after old boy Kanu broke our hearts.

So another home tie, this could be the year, with some of the bigger clubs going out last round and Man United losing in the morning, surely our manager would pull out all the stops to beat Norwich, especially after they beat us only two weeks ago at home. This must be payback time.

But something happened early afternoon that shattered my hopes and in my mind left our chances of progressing somewhat in the gutter. It was at about 2.15pm when I saw that team sheet had been announced, looking at the West Brom reserves playing in defence left me feeling deflated and upset that such an opportunity was going to be wasted.

I texted friends, and their feelings mirrored my own thoughts, what the hell was going on? Why were we having to field such players on such a special day? But then I struck me, this is life under our chairman, with a squad of about 14 players who re capable of holding their own against premiership opposition, the rest fill in when needed.

Every fan knows that we are lightweight on quality players and the manager must recognise that he needs about three or four decent players to add to the squad.

But will we spend money? Of course not! Protecting our profit and looking for free transfers and lower division players is the name of the game for West Brom.

I looked in amazement seeing our back four consisted of Jara (recently back from loan at Brighton), Mattock (recently back from loan at Portsmouth), Tamas (Been in the reserves all year and prone to mistakes) and Dawson (A young player with potential), but throwing him in with these other players to support and protect him was always a recipe for disaster.

So I wasn’t disappointed by the end of the match with a 2-1 defeat, it was expected and inevitable that we were going to be knocked out – our only comfort being that we can concentrate on league survival now.

I can’t blame the manager, could he risk playing Olsson, McAuley, Long, Odemwingie and co, with another two league games in the next week?

Of course he couldn’t, but he should have players in reserve who are able to fit into the side without weakening it to such extent. Again I believe our chairman and the board are letting the fans down, we wanted that cup run and should have ben capable of progressing, but we need players who can make a difference, not players sat on the bench with fingers crossed that we don’t have an injury because we are scared to play them.

Albion fans will not be shocked as we experience the same scenario every season, I really hoped that Roy’s efforts last season would have seen him being supported by the board and a few players would be purchased.

Our chairman is gambling again, hoping that we manage to survive in the league another season and also maintain a transfer fee suplus, we have sold players worth £8m and only purchased one player worth £4.5m this season.

Surely not the credentials for supporting your manager and pleasing your fans, Albion fans are not expecting us to break the bank and go into huge debt, we are not stupid, but at least making the effort to support the people who support you by bringing in a few quality players who will add much needed depth to the squad.

Over to you Mr Peace, the clock is ticking…

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