| Teams like West Brom and Swansea 00:14 - Nov 19 with 6790 views | Dubtractor |
How is it possible to be long established Premier League teams, with all the money that it brings, and yet have such an utterly average/poor squad of players? |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:20 - Nov 19 with 6760 views | The_Romford_Blue |
Good management when they get there.
Bringing Pulis in to make them a steady premiership side was the best thing WBA could've possibly done |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:37 - Nov 19 with 6728 views | Cheltenham_Blue |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:20 - Nov 19 by The_Romford_Blue |
Good management when they get there.
Bringing Pulis in to make them a steady premiership side was the best thing WBA could've possibly done |
Utter Tosh.
WBA were already a steady Premier League side until Hodgson went to England. |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:42 - Nov 19 with 6719 views | The_Romford_Blue |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:37 - Nov 19 by Cheltenham_Blue |
Utter Tosh.
WBA were already a steady Premier League side until Hodgson went to England. |
I'd argue that Hodgson had one season where they punched well above their weight.
But up until the Pulis era, staying up was the target.
Now the target under him for them is top 8-10 which shows how far they've come in my opinion. | |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:47 - Nov 19 with 6703 views | MaySixth |
because they are small clubs at heart who are not particularly progressive |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:51 - Nov 19 with 6696 views | Dubtractor |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:42 - Nov 19 by The_Romford_Blue |
I'd argue that Hodgson had one season where they punched well above their weight.
But up until the Pulis era, staying up was the target.
Now the target under him for them is top 8-10 which shows how far they've come in my opinion. |
That's not really my point though, which is that having been there as long as they have you'd hope to have better players. | |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 01:13 - Nov 19 with 6670 views | hoppy |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:51 - Nov 19 by Dubtractor |
That's not really my point though, which is that having been there as long as they have you'd hope to have better players. |
Maybe their players are of a reasonable enough quality to maintain their position but not to push on beyond that. Probably not dissimilar to our premier league squad when we did so well in that first season after play off win. I still think If we’d not overachieved to the extreme that we did, that it would’ve been to our advantage to slowly establish ourselves in mid table. |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 01:32 - Nov 19 with 6653 views | The_Romford_Blue |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:51 - Nov 19 by Dubtractor |
That's not really my point though, which is that having been there as long as they have you'd hope to have better players. |
Oh I see | |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 03:48 - Nov 19 with 6610 views | Swansea_Blue |
Because it's a player and manager treadmill. They get there by doing something well or different. But each season good players or managers are poached and they're constantly having to unearth good players on the relative cheap. There's only so long you can continue to do that before it catches up with you (we had the condensed version in our last relegation season; get there off the back of momentum and excellent team spirit, and then over-achieve and it all goes pear shaped if the new additions don't gel).
In Swansea's case they've also been taken over by a bunch of football dunces. Both clubs currently bottom of the PL are run by American hedge fund managers who know nothing about the game (mirroring our struggles under ME).
It might seem like a lot of money, but the salaries and transfer fees are obscene. Small teams like that are always going to struggle in the end. Burnley doing brilliantly this season, but I bet they'd struggle if they lost Dyche. [Post edited 19 Nov 2017 3:57]
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 09:19 - Nov 19 with 6401 views | factual_blue |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:51 - Nov 19 by Dubtractor |
That's not really my point though, which is that having been there as long as they have you'd hope to have better players. |
Unless they produce talented players themselves - or get lucky with a young foreign player looking to get noticed by the bigger clubs - they're never going to have the prestige and/or the money of Utd, City, Liverpool etc. I doubt they've got the international scouting resources of those clubs either. |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 09:23 - Nov 19 with 6395 views | bluewein |
Maybe something to do with the fact that the premier league isn’t as great as it’s made out to be. |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 09:55 - Nov 19 with 6342 views | strikalite |
Average players compared to the top sides, I guess it goes to show that there are a lot of players who are very similar in quality overall, they're all such good athletes now that not many players truly stand out in games, the cream in the top sides do obviously, but look how much they have cost(City, Chelsea), it's just crazy that a West Brom can spend £15-20m on a player who can look bang average, but then now and again they can show their worth which is why the league is so close....apart from the top sides.. |  | | |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 10:34 - Nov 19 with 6275 views | Guthrum |
Probably because there is a relatively small pool of extremely good players, all of which are hoovered up by the vastly more wealthy top half dozen Prem teams (and their handful of counterparts in Spain, France and Germany). Everyone else has to make do with mostly average-to-poor Prem-standard footballers (who are a little better than their Championship equivalent, but not that much).
Occasionally, they may breed, discover or splash out on a more talented individual (e.g. Mahrez). But that is pretty rare.
Plus they are forced to go into an overly defensive mode in the highest-profile matches due to being outclassed by those very big fish. Too much attacking is likely to result in comprehensive demolition (and the manager losing his job). The much shorter Prem season leaves a lot less leeway to compensate for five or six serious hammerings with better results against more "average" opposition and whoever the whipping-boys are that time around (there's always a couple of teams where the wheels have come off). |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 10:42 - Nov 19 with 6262 views | Terry_Nutkins |
Whats your definition of average? Average prem yes fair enough. Thats because they are more or less Average prem teams. Certainly not poor squads are they. Taking West Brom they have a mix of very good players and underated players. Johnny Evans for example quite frankly would be a starter for Liverpool for example in my opinion (not a 'fashionable' name but a top ball playing centre back). Rondon looks unplayable on his day but not consistent. Chadli is a top player and they've got some excellent players like Barry, Livermore (not convinced he should be starting for zengland but good prem player) Rodriguez (would have more England caps but for injury) Gibbs, Brunt etc. I look at their squad and think thats a mid table squad to be honest. It would walk the championship.
There are no weak teams in the prem. in paper Huddersfield and Brighton would look the least equiped. |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 10:46 - Nov 19 with 6254 views | strikalite |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 10:34 - Nov 19 by Guthrum |
Probably because there is a relatively small pool of extremely good players, all of which are hoovered up by the vastly more wealthy top half dozen Prem teams (and their handful of counterparts in Spain, France and Germany). Everyone else has to make do with mostly average-to-poor Prem-standard footballers (who are a little better than their Championship equivalent, but not that much).
Occasionally, they may breed, discover or splash out on a more talented individual (e.g. Mahrez). But that is pretty rare.
Plus they are forced to go into an overly defensive mode in the highest-profile matches due to being outclassed by those very big fish. Too much attacking is likely to result in comprehensive demolition (and the manager losing his job). The much shorter Prem season leaves a lot less leeway to compensate for five or six serious hammerings with better results against more "average" opposition and whoever the whipping-boys are that time around (there's always a couple of teams where the wheels have come off). |
Also, there are quality players still out there for the lesser Clubs in the Prem to come in and shine and make a difference, they're not all bang average, we mustn't forget that, Kante of Leicester now at Chelsea to name just one, there have been a lot over the years who make that next step up who have entered the Prem with a lesser side and stood out from the rest.. | | | |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 10:58 - Nov 19 with 6236 views | Guthrum |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 10:46 - Nov 19 by strikalite |
Also, there are quality players still out there for the lesser Clubs in the Prem to come in and shine and make a difference, they're not all bang average, we mustn't forget that, Kante of Leicester now at Chelsea to name just one, there have been a lot over the years who make that next step up who have entered the Prem with a lesser side and stood out from the rest.. |
But it isn't long before they, like Kante, are hoovered up by the big boys. Generally only gives a season or so to make things count before you've lost your bright star. | |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 11:05 - Nov 19 with 6230 views | textbackup |
they end up filling squads with relegated players (good champ players) or prem wages. snodgrasses of this world |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 11:18 - Nov 19 with 6208 views | strikalite |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 10:58 - Nov 19 by Guthrum |
But it isn't long before they, like Kante, are hoovered up by the big boys. Generally only gives a season or so to make things count before you've lost your bright star. |
Well yeah that'll probably always be the case, but at least the likes of Swansea or the lesser sides know it's possible to find these players and bring them in, probably because the wages here even at the lesser sides are so much better than in Germany or Italy for example..
Agents have a lot to answer for now, pushing players to move on for the big buck whilst sitting on the bench somewhere, now the lesser Clubs can pay big bucks too, hopefully players are considering this before making their move.. | | | |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 12:39 - Nov 19 with 6135 views | bournemouthblue |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 00:47 - Nov 19 by MaySixth |
because they are small clubs at heart who are not particularly progressive |
What does that make us?
For the most part Swansea and WBA have had the quality to remain stable in the Prem. Swansea even won the League Cup?
What we'd do for some of that!
The reality is that at some stage, you're going to lose players for one reason or another and end up with an average batch. Enjoy the good times whilst they last!
You need to be the next tier of club to avoid relegation for the most part, the Evertons of this world never seem to have a problem but fail to ever fully rumble the big boys. |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 13:29 - Nov 19 with 6075 views | stickymockwell |
West Brom and Swansea will never have the money of the top teams.
I'd love to see Caps on Salaries, Caps on squad sizes and a mandatory 6 home grown players and a limit to 5 foreign players in any squad. It would never ever happen because money talks, but Spurs have proven that you can produce a great team with sensible wages and promoting youth.
If the FA were serious about grass roots football and not about billions of Quids then we might just one day have a chance of tournament win. It would also give the lower league teams a chance to dream.
I would be just as board watching Swansea and Brom as I am watching Ipswich |  |
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| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 22:40 - Nov 19 with 5858 views | BrettenhamBlue |
| Teams like West Brom and Swansea on 09:19 - Nov 19 by factual_blue |
Unless they produce talented players themselves - or get lucky with a young foreign player looking to get noticed by the bigger clubs - they're never going to have the prestige and/or the money of Utd, City, Liverpool etc. I doubt they've got the international scouting resources of those clubs either. |
Agree. Both clubs seem to have brought in a lot of players. Home grown talent is important. |  |
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