West Brom boss Tony Pulis deserves praise, not criticism from fans

By Dan Hewitt

As the business-end of the season draws in, back-to-back wins have put West Brom six points off a European spot, but more importantly, 11 points clear of relegation.

A team that this time last year was immersed in a relegation fight, is now easing away from danger. For the first time in three seasons, Albion aren’t being talked of as relegation candidates. Clear progress is being made at a club in desperate need of stability and consistency.

Tony Pulis then, the mastermind behind Albion’s climb, is one of the last managers you’d expect to be under pressure right now. But under pressure he is.

That pressure isn’t coming from the chairman, Jeremy Peace, who remains a big fan of his employee. In fact, I understand Pulis enjoys a uniquely close and, at times, even friendly relationship with the Baggies owner, that no West Brom boss has been afforded by the historically distant and icy Peace.

No pressure either from the players, who’ve shown no sign of dissent or a lack of effort. Pulis always works his players hard, demanding the highest level of obedience to the cause. Where recent performances have fallen way short, it hasn’t been through want of trying.

The pressure is instead coming from supporters. Not all - not even most - but a vocal minority, angry at what they see as a hostile takeover, and the imposition of his ungodly brand of football by the heathen Pulis.

Even with his notoriously thick-skin, the backing of his chairman, his players and most supporters, this week the minority got to him. The Albion boss dropped the first hint that he was prepared to walk away in the summer.

The Welshman has hitherto spoken of his long-term plan for the club – getting through this season to better-build for the next. It appears though Pulis knows when he’s not wanted. We all know that the 'fan' who attacked Chris Brunt at Reading was sending a message not to the midfielder but his manager, a message about as subtle as the coin he threw: “we want you out of ‘our’ club, and we’re willing to do anything, including assaulting our own players, to see it happen”.

The message was clearly received. There is, after all, only so much a manager can take, even one as determined and dogged as Pulis.

“I don’t understand it,” he said at his weekly press conference, adding, “but if they’re going on computers and telephones fine, what you can’t do and what you’ve got to be careful of is allowing the incidents to build over to what it was on Saturday.

“We need the supporters, it’s their football club and we need them.”

But with these words, Pulis was also making it clear – “I don’t need them”. And he doesn’t. He doesn’t need West Brom, nor does he deserve the abuse he’s received on the “computers and on the telephones”.

The man inherited the most pathetically-assembled squad in recent Premier League history, yet somehow, miraculously sailed them to safety within a matter of weeks, and in the meantime transformed a shambles of scouting and coaching structure into what now is beginning to resemble a proper football club.

Sack him? Pulis already deserves to go down in folklore as one of our saviours. Only two managers in my lifetime have turned around this club in the same way – Gary Megson and Roy Hodgson. Both, incidentally, shared almost identical footballing philosophies to Pulis.

And let us never forget, or let them ever forget, those Albion followers who turned on Megson in his final days. These were the same blue-sky thinkers who dreamed of the illusive “next-level”, who wanted more than what Megson could offer, and ended up with Bryan Robson, and Ronnie Wallwork, and not long after, relegation.

Pulis has worked miracles at this club. He’s bought two of the best players I’ve seen in an Albion shirt – first Darren Fletcher, and then, one better, in Jonny Evans. Some supporters prefer to judge Pulis by the purchases that haven’t come-off, the Rickie Lamberts and Callum McManamans, but you should judge a manager by all of his signings and no Baggies boss in living memory has bought in a captain like Fletcher or a defender like Evans.

And look at what he’s done with the players he inherited; Craig Dawson has played his best football under Pulis – progressing into an established, ever-improving full-back. Claudio Yacob couldn’t even get in the squad under Pepe Mel and Alan Irvine – Pulis put him straight back in the team. Jonas Olsson meanwhile has enjoyed a second-wind in recent months.

Then there’s Saido Berahino. Compare how the club handled Peter Odemwingie to how it’s handled the Berahino saga. Pulis deserves immense praise for the way he’s dealt with the 22-year-old’s petulance – with patience, intelligence, and class. Few managers could get the kind of commitment and quality Berahino showed against Crystal Palace on Saturday after the way he’s behaved.

For the first time in a long time, West Brom have a chance to become a stable, successful Premier League outfit. Pulis has made mistakes, name a manager who hasn’t. At times he’s too negative, far too negative. Hodgson could be too, Megson certainly was.

Style isn't everything in football and many clubs who have looked for more exciting play have fallen by the wayside, just ask Bolton, Charlton and Blackburn.

And to those that want Pulis gone – who’s your alternative? Who’s this Guardiola-figure you have waiting in the wings? What evidence have you in our recent history, or in the recent history of clubs of our size, that sacking successful managers like Pulis leads to greater success? That we can reach the next level simply by changing the way we play?

Tony Pulis is right – a team needs its supporters, and right now, we need Tony Pulis.