So What Now?!?!

i was wrong. it now rather appears that the gaffer is going to go manage at parkhead next year - barring any snags in the negotiations, which i am still, in a funny way, half expecting. but then, we would never have gotten this far if TM didn't really, really want the job, now - would we? i really thought that he would have cut out all the speculation a couple of days ago, what with celtic dragging their ass and playing hardball, both through seeking advisement from the english and scottish FA's respectively - as to their legal position over mowbray's contract with west brom, and all the media bullying that they have engaged in. i would have thought that very little of this would have been to the gaffer's taste, and as a result he would stay with the baggies.

but, as has been reported today in the birmingham mail:

Celtic would only confirm that talks with Mowbray are set to begin, with chairman John Reid telling the club's official website: "We can confirm that we have reached an agreement in principle with West Bromwich Albion Football Club and have been given permission to speak to Tony Mowbray and his backroom staff...

It is unlikely that any hitches in negotiations will arise and Mowbray should be unveiled before the Scottish media early next week.

full story

i've been a supporter and admirer of tony mowbray's - and i do think that if he has the right team - and of the necessary talent - he is a great manager. this is simple to draw out merely by comparing the team that won the championship in 08 to the one that was relegated again in 09. in the first case, he had the necessary personnel. in the latter campaign, he most decidedly did not... and that was only just! if he had had a senior striker (i.e. if he had had kevin phillips) then i think the baggies would have been a very different team this year - and would not have stalled on scoring, as they did.

so, in the end - and if he does ultimately go - i shall be disappointed... at least until we all know who the next manager is going to be. i suppose someone like steve coppell seems an appropriate, if unexciting kind of prospect. i really liked mowbray. he was the best thing about being a baggies fan this year. it was a miserable, long and frustrating season where the club played better football than their record would indicate. they lost innumerable matches that they should have won - and the only thing that made me feel better all year was hearing TM's post-game assessments. he had a way of reminding us all about the team's assets and admitted to their deficits as something to be addressed; and he knew - like all of us, and despite the bags of goals they let in during the course of several drubbings - that he was only one goal scorer away from a team that could easily survive the premiership. he was top notch at reminding us of this and helped take a lot of the painful sting out of the season.

i'm disappointed, as well, that he didn't (like owen coyle) blow off this celtic thing the minute they started commandeering the press and went to national FA's asking for judgments on the compensation clause in his contract. i thought that was really ugly stuff - in that, it would have forced mowbray to resign acrimoniously and act in a manner contrary to his nature; so again, i'm disappointed that he wanted the celtic job so badly. on the other hand, he was smart to keep his mouth shut and not make any enemies - and he was loyal enough to the albion by forcing celtic to honour the compensation deal. by the cut-throat standards of modern football management practices, the gaffer's ok!
ossie says
i thought that it was fascinating that ossie ardiles came out publicly and spoke about the situation from his own experience after managing the albion out of the old league 2 in 92-93; and then not sticking around to see the job through to any long-term outcome.

it is a true testament to the quality of the west bromwich albion f.c. organization as a competitive football entity, that he should come out publicly saying that leaving a club just promoted to what was then the second-tier of english football from the third, for premiership giants tottenham hotspur was the biggest mistake of his management career. it is high praise indeed for the organization - and everyone involved with that team knew that they would have seen continued success as long as ossie stayed on as manager. perhaps he's even lobbying for the current post himself, by coming out like this? stranger things have happened at the albion with ex-managers and old players... i'd be as happy with ardiles returning to make amends and take a second kick at it as anybody.

although i don't get the chance to see nearly enough scottish or championship football, the only manager that i could really get passionate about would've been john hughes from falkirk, but as we all know: he's now moved into tony mowbray's old job at hibernian. from what i saw of the scottish premiership last year, he did a terrific job with falkirk, and was dedicated to a style of football completely in sync with the traditions at the albion. timing is everything in this business, eh?

i haven't heard anything as to who might take over at the hawthorns as mowbray heads north and into the high-pressure hurley-burley of old-firm football. surely they must be talking to someone, and unless they've discovered some hidden talent in him that the rest of us don't know about, i can't take the alan shearer stories seriously...

And... It's Worse Than Ever!

well, there goes my last suggestion... john hughes was appointed the new manager at hibs, the morning after i had advised here in my blog that the albion rush out to sign him in the event that TM leaves for parkhead. but, y'know what? i don't think the gaffer is gonna leave the hawthorns.

although, it does still appears that celtic are winning the war in the press - and are playing hardball by going to the respective national FA's and getting a judgment in order to get around the compensation clause in tony mowbray's contract. it's very ugly stuff indeed - i think he will stay at west brom simply because celtic have not handled this the right way, and i can't see TM's principles allowing himself to be associated with something that was approached so aggressively and done so poorly. if, for example, he had spoken privately and off the record (so to speak) and expressed interest in the job to someone at the celtic organization, then i'm sure he must feel somewhat betrayed and the whole thing terribly compromised at this point due to the mess this has become in the news-media; and where most people would feel that they'd now been forced into a position to accept a high-profile gig like managing celtic; TM will feel, quite conversely, and because of the sensational and public nature of celtic's "negotiating" practices in this case, that he is now being forced to stay at west brom, whether he originally intended to take the celtic job or not.

so he will now stay and yet see through the project of taking west brom back to the premiership and having yet another kick at surviving more than one top-flight campaign. while it certainly doesn't look like it in the press - much of which is still treating mowbray's departure from the hawthorns a foregone conclusion - and while his "silence is deafening" is a phrase quickly becoming hackneyed and overworked in the press to characterize the gaffer's lack of input so far - no one is re-iterating his message.

the fact is, that TM has now been put on the spot, so far as i can tell, in that if he wants the job, he will have to formally resign his post with the baggies and simply sign with celtic. beyond that, it's a matter of the club paying off what mowbray will owe - not what celtic will owe (which legally is nothing) - in buying his way out of contract with west brom. at least, that's as much of the story as i am currently able to understand from today's news reports. and i think that that would be asking mowbray to do something that he wouldn't want to do.

so when i look at the scenario, i just can't see it. TM's too much of a straight shooter, and whatever his feelings about his old club - i can't imagine him being too happy with the press "leaks" and public bullying in the british and international news media.

and now this nonsense about alan shearer!?! unbelievable...

Mozza and Robbo

after weeks of speculation about how a few of the players - and especially morrison - would be looking for transfers in order to keep playing in the premier league, it looks like he might be going to bolton - and fan favourite paul robinson with him too - while the most recent albion hero, chris brunt, is set for a transfer to rangers. i think it's just amazing that these guys get one or two years under their belt in the premier league, and then knowing that there are other premiership clubs that would take them, they are thenceforth self-declared "premier league" players and can no longer entertain notions of staying with a team that has been relegated, and are transfered for what is nowadays considered a prudent £2-3 million each.

"I can't face playing in the Championship again. I feel I've proved myself in the Premier League," said robinson in the mirror recently. robbo has been at the hawthorns for 6 years - so that's what? 3 years in the championship and 3 years in the premier league?

when i look at football from years past, and think how the greats like dixie dean, stanley mattews, tommy glidden, w.g. richardson, bobby robson, bobby moore, gordon banks, peter osgoode, johnny giles, tony brown, clive allen and many others all routinely played in the 2nd division, following the fortunes of their clubs as they struggled with football's up and downs, seeing through both the good times and the bad - i can't help but wonder what are the differences between the players of yesteryear and the relative prestige (or lack thereof) of the old 1st and 2nd divisions when compared to that of the modern premier and championships?

the differences - while being symbolically representative of the same two tiers of football - are immense, not least in the area of prestige, and in the public perception. the premiership, through its visionary use of live television broadcasts of its matches, has created a cosmopolitan international football league dominated by the four most popular clubs. before the advent of the premier league, english football was much more competitive at the top-flight.

while other countries like italy, spain and portugal have long had familiar teams that would dominate their domestic competitions year in year out; the english 1st division had a different complexion every year, and it was only possible to really be competitive and win titles for two or three years at a time before another set of teams would, in turn, follow and dominate for the next few years after that. while inter-milan or juventas, real madrid and barcelona - not to mention the stranglehold dominance of celtic and rangers on scottish football - have long been perennial sure-bets to be contesting league titles and domestic cup competitions; the english 1st division was being won by the likes of derby county, nottingham forrest, leeds united, ipswich town - as well as, arsenal and liverpool; with heavy contention coming from clubs like: west bromwich albion, norwich city, QPR, bristol city and manchester city, amongst others.

three years out of five in england saw 2nd division teams in the FA Cup finals, with sunderland and southampton taking the trophy from leeds and manchester united respectively in '72 and '76; while west ham narrowly beat fulham in the 1975 final, to become the only 1st division team to win a cup final against 2nd division opposition during the 1970s.

the premier league - barring the fact that blackburn rovers were the competitions' first champions - is not in this same spirit at all - and is less a "domestic" football competition and more like a first cousin of the champions league than anything else. which means, really, that the championship is a kind of "downgraded" descendant of the old 1st division, and although it has taken a while for some of the really big clubs to devolve and get there, it is beginning to happen. newcastle united being relegated to the championship, for example, really brings a whole level of top-flight glamour to the division, that can't be seen as anything but positive as far as creating added interest in the championship goes - and, as this is going to start to happen with increasing frequency - they are going to have to find a way to increase the value of the whole division. the only way to do this will be with TV - and they are going to have to do something, because, as we have already seen in the recent past with derby county, nottingham forest, southampton and charlton athletic - is that really big clubs who have made the commitment to premier league football, cannot afford to play in the championship for more than a couple of years. so if they are relegated and then unsuccessful in gaining promotion back to the premiership, they then get in trouble financially and often cannot avoid eventual relegation to league 1.

so as the tottenham hotspur, blackburn rovers, bolton wanderers and manchester citys' etc. devolve into fodder for relegation, the nature of the championship will have to change - in order to save the bigger clubs - and as it does, maybe it will develop sufficiently that players like morrison, robinson and brunt - along with their contemporaries and their predecessors of ancient relegations - will be able to stay on and display the loyalty that used to make it possible for a more competitive football environment to flourish.