I am not quite so sure Tony Pulis is the most favourable of characters in and around these parts of London following his acrimonious exit from Selhurst Park at the beginning of last season. So to that end, I am sure you will all forgive me for taking a bit of a swipe at the head coach of West Bromwich Albion in this weeks edition of ‘Premier League Opinion’.
So far this season West Brom have been extremely average. This is not a complaint, more of an observation. At times we have looked half decent, at times we have looked half soaked. This is to me down to our players abilities and on the flip side, their limitations.
I understand a club of our size with a manager like Pulis who sets his team up to defend well before anything else are probably not going to trouble the top seven or eight in the Premier League like Leicester City, Southampton, Palace and Watford have of late. At the moment, William Hill football betting have the Baggies at 8/1 to be relegated from the Premier League which is a higher chance than us threatening the top eight.
Following a disappointing fixture, I am happy for the head coach of any team to tell it as it is. Tell us which players could have performed better, like Pardew did about Wayne Hennessey last week. Tell us how you need to improve in certain areas or even complain about decisions not going your way. But excuses like the one us Baggies fans had to endure following probably the most dull and boring game of this Premier League season is not right.
Pulis came out in a post-match interview in a game where his team, the home side in a local derby against bottom of the league, failed to register a single shot on target and commented to local radio that his team were ‘tired’. TIRED?
No, Tony. Tired is working a twelve hour night shift, then without sleep, driving to the Hawthorns to watch a football game before going back to work for another twelve hour night shift, just as I did last weekend. Or working day after day labouring in a factory, not really catching much daylight, for a minimum wage, week in, week out. Or heading out to the Middle East to put your life on the line for your country. The difference is that folk in those situations tend not to tell you about how tired they are. They might tell you how proud they are though.
Now you could call me cynical, or you may tell me I am missing the point. But, I would argue that these overpaid Premier League footballers who get more afternoons off work than your average postman have no right to be tired, called tired, act tired or complain about being tired or to be honest, even mention the word tired.
As I have mentioned in another piece this season on Sadio Mane and his antics, these footballers are being paid an absolute fortune and as such should show respect to those that spend forty pounds just for a ticket to watch them take part in a game of football A game which they call work.
Pulis upset quite a few Baggies fans with his poor choice of words, and is upsetting even more with his stubborn choice of the same players every week. The players may well be feeling it a little, but these comments from the Bournemouth based head coach only prove how far out of touch football is from real life. Even for a man of his stature within the game.
The last thing any fan wants to hear is that their team are tired. Maybe he has touched a nerve, maybe the football is just getting to me, or maybe I am just a cynical bugger but if anyone at the Hawthorns was tired this weekend it was not the players. It was the 25,000 West Bromwich Albion supporters.
