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Just realistic. We’ve struggled against physical direct sides like Millwall for long before Nige arrived, plus the ref is a joke, it’s not a happy hunting ground for us, and confidence is low. It all points to a home win IMO.

2-0 Millwall.

That’s a valid point and one I agree with. He needs to pick players in their preferred positions and if he’s welded to a back three, right now that should mean Vyner, Naismith, Atkinson, with Tanner and Pring either side. Scott and James in midfield behind Weimann, and the front two pick themselves. I’ve got no doubt Tanner could do a better job at RWB than Sykes, Scott or Weimann.

Good post. And the irony here is that SL had those challenging opinions from the likes of Laycock and Davidson when they were directors but he bought them out to create this dictatorship. 20 years on and look where that’s got us (on the pitch). As for JL, he did just as little for HL’s helpdesk during those times as he’s doing as chairman of our club. The bloke’s a privileged clown.

Craig Shakespeare’s suddenly available now, I wonder ?

Exactly.

In what way were we “fortunate that a points deduction did for others and hid our true position”? Without the 21 points Derby were deducted, they’d have finished one place above us on goal difference. We’d have finished one place lower, Reading would’ve gone down, and there would still have been 14 points between us and the bottom three with a host of clubs in between.

I get that, Davide, but as you rightly say West Brom have considerably more quality in their ranks because parachute payments enable them to do so. When we played them in October, those quality players were coasting and they we caught them cold. That’s the Championship, it happens. Did anyone moan about that win? No. Did anyone moan when we beat Rotherham TWO games ago? No. But people are moaning because they changed manager and he’s getting a better tune out of those quality players and assists me the same would happen here, failing to acknowledge that we have nowhere near the quality to achieve a similar outcome. Compare Sykes with Wallace for example, poles apart in terms of quality. Our season won’t be defined on a defeat to West Brom, it’ll rest on games against Cardiff, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Blackpool and co, plus whatever points we can pick up in between. But to give us a chance of that, Nige needs to pick players in their proper positions. What’s the realistic alternative? Euell? That’s the sort of replacement we’d get. Be careful what you wish for.

You mean compare the West Brom side that has proven quality players at this level (Furlong, Swift, Wallace to name three) who are all on big wages that we can’t afford to pay, with players who’ve been picked up from L1 and L2 (Sykes, Atkinson, Tanner to name three)? In no way is that irrelevant.

Relegation would cost more than sacking Pearson, but what’s the guarantee we stay up if he gets the boot? There is none and in all probability his sacking would make a bad situation worse, particularly when it’s likely we’d end up with someone like Euell in charge going on SL’s track record.

Keith Dawe hired Cotterill and if I remember correctly GJ wasn’t SL’s first choice either. I add to that SL’s influence in the decision to appoint Pulis over Moyes in the late ‘90s. He has a proven track record of failure when it comes to appointing managers and head coaches. That’s a fact. For me, it is a miracle that we have stayed in this division the last two seasons given the turmoil we’ve been embroiled in, and our best chance of staying up this year is to stick together now and reassess in the summer. That’s not to say I’m happy with how it’s going, though. Roll the dice before the summer and we add to our financial woes with no guarantee of staying up.

I don’t disagree with you for what’s it worth, but I have zero faith in the Lansdowns to get us out of a situation that is entirely of their own making.

What we need is Bielsa; what we’d end up with is Euell. I admired the job Valerian Ismael did at Barnsley, but not sure about him after his stint at West Brom.

For everyone saying get rid after losing to a side that will probably finish in the top six, ask yourselves — on more than 20 years of evidence — do you genuinely trust the Lansdowns to appoint someone who can improve the situation under the current restraints? I sure as hell don’t. Yes, today was shit. Yes, we will probably lose at Millwall and to Coventry. But I think we’re better than Rotherham, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Blackpool and will stay up by the skin of our teeth if we keep him. If we get rid, I think relegation is nailed on and his successor will have even less money to turn it around (barring a major sale). We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t.

No surprises there, he ain’t a RWB. We’ve got a decent one in Tanner on the bench as well.

If Conway squared that, Pring would’ve had a tap-in. Chance gone

On paper, West Brom should canter to victory today, but if there’s one thing about this consistently inconsistent City side it’s to write us off at your peril. Most people did that in the reverse fixture yet we got our first win, and a comfortable one at that, at the Hawthorns in donkey’s years. All bets are off for me and it wouldn’t surprise me if we get a result today. Pick King in the middle or defence again and that opinion will change, though.

New deal, two-year extension, reduced terms? I think so.

You shouldn’t take Harrod’s literally; it was an analogy. As @CodeRed said, we paid Harrod’s prices but got Lidl quality by and large - and that’s why we’re in the stagnant position we find ourselves in now, having to take hopeful punts on lower league freebies until such a time comes that the slate is wiped clean. I can’t have Mark Sykes, for example, starting over Tanner and I think Wilson will come good next year in that position. I agree with the rest of your post, the reckless scattergun approach is not - and never has been - the best way to go.

And that’s one of the reasons why I think it’s an achievement to have stayed in this division up to this date. Nige has had to shop in Poundland; the previous regime shopped in Harrod’s.

I couldn’t give a toss about the blue few, but every dog eventually has their day and there is a chance they might go above us very briefly before we go above them for another two decades. Regarding relegation, I don’t think it’s likely right now. There are worse teams and Nige does have form for getting a result, usually when the pressure’s off. I do think we’d be in the shit if he left right now, though, and for context I’m not happy with Atkinson’s treatment. But then again I think it’s a minor miracle he’s rebuilding us while we’re at this level. Every other time we’ve undergone a rebuild it’s been in the third tier.

A couple of points from me: 1) Atkinson’s best form came when he was deployed to the left of Naismith earlier in the season. I see no reason why Atkinson couldn’t reach those levels again not Naismith is fit. 2) Apologies if this has been mentioned already, and certainly no disrespect to Ali Durden, but Nige has gone on record saying he “wants defenders who can defend”, so there’s an obvious question he should’ve asked regarding King’s selection. King is not, and never will be, a CB.

I don’t think his attitude’s the issue; his performances have nosedived since he changed his agent a few months ago and I suspect they are in his ear, telling him he’s bigger and better than us. Going to the World Cup would fuel that, even if his performances won’t.

It’s an obvious solution for a cash-strapped club like us: sell Semenyo to the highest bidder, reinvest in our weakest areas. The problem we have IMO is Semenyo’s gone massively off the boil with the distraction of the World Cup. He thinks he’s better than he is.

If that’s true, and I haven’t heard any of the post-match comments yet, that’s a piss take. Atkinson’s his signing and he’s been on an upward curve this season IMO, certainly one of our best players before the first international break. Hopefully he’s only trying to get him to up his game, but that’s clutching at a thin straw. Playing King at CB might work against a Watford team resting players for the World Cup, but I know what horse I’d back week in, week out in that position over the course of the season and it wouldn’t be King.