Great Expectations and Grand Delusions

QPR 1-1 WBA

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despite a recent drop in form that has seen the baggies take only seven points from their last eight fixtures, their blistering start to the season has assured that they begin the new year still in the top 7, as well as now having a third-round replay at home to QPR in the FA CUP.


while this still represents what is so far the best campaign that west brom has contested in thirty-some-odd years - and any albion supporter would have happily taken their current standing in the table at the outset of the season - the reaction to their recent home loss to fulham gives some small insight into the decidedly unhealthy attitude that the modern football fan now brings with them to the park each and every saturday afternoon.

thankfully, matches are no longer plagued by the large-scale hooliganism that sometimes made attending football in england a terrifying experience in the 1970s and 80s; but something has changed in the mindset of the average, shirt-wearing, scarf waving, anthem singing fan in these early years of the 21st century.

WBA 1-2 Fulham F.C.

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with the whole side being booed off the pitch at half-time against fulham - and club captain, chris brunt, singled out for individual abuse when substituted following a sub-par peformance - the level of psychological anger that has replaced the old feelings of disappointment at a poor result was fully exposed for all to see.

even modest success now seems to create a sense of entitlement in the modern supporter and the right to harbour unrealistic expectations that necessarily require a scape-goat when not properly met.


last year it was james morrison who was singled out for supporter animosity.

to illustrate this tendency at its most dramatic, and after a long run of poor results up the road at wolves, manager stale solbakken's car was vandalized outside his staffordshire apartment back in november. the disturbing fact about this incident is that it wouldn't be the work of "hooligan" elements looking to create social disorder. this type of activity would hold little, if any, interest for them. rather more likely, is that it was disgruntled season-ticket holders, emboldened by some small intake of liquor and beer, and angry at seeing their team's drastic drop in form with the ever impending prospect of a relegation scrap at the bottom end of the CHAMPIONSHIP looming.

Manchester Utd. F.C. 2-0 WBA

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i have always been an admirer of chris brunt's. he's the best dead ball man at the club by some distance. from open play he is capable of cutting apart a defence with a singularly acute and accurate through-ball or scoring with a 25-yard screamer to the top corner. he is a real professional who has strived to continue and improve; and whether you believe that he is an adequate top-flight footballer or not, replacing him would be much more difficult and costly than some might think. so i don't understand why some of the home support turned on him as they recently did.


i wouldn't suggest that things have gotten too far out of hand just yet, but the PREMIER LEAGUE can do terrible damage to the soul of a football club.

while it was not a particularly distinguished performance (especially the first-half) against fulham, it is a mistake on the part of the average west bromwich albion fan to take it for granted that the baggies should necessarily and routinely be beating this level of competition. especially when you consider that the cottagers have been in the PREMIER LEAGUE for the last ten years running, they almost won the EUROPA LEAGUE two years ago, and in dimitar berbatov they have a top international who costs 5 times what albion's most expensive player does. you can't sniff at that.

QPR 1-2 WBA

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the baggies have recently developed the habit of starting slowly, and this has lead to poor performances in the first half of their most recent matches. whatever it is, they are definitely reserving their better football for after the break. my suspician is that this is a by-product of single-minded adherance to the principles of counter attacking football. nowhere was this more evident than their recent trip to old trafford.

to be fair, they looked a little stunned at the occassion and consequently their play throughout the first-half could only be described as "timid". however, they came into the game in the second-half and dominated the play for long periods.

in fact, with the baggies threatening to equalize, and coming more and more onto the front foot in the final stages of the game, united were ultimately forced to bring on their £22.5 million substitute, robin van persie, to ensure the victory.

while disappointed with the result, especially after the baggies looked like they might repeat their achievement of two years ago, i was happy with the performance in the second-half. if they had shown anything at all in the first-half, they just might have gotten something from this game.

WBA 2-1 Norwich City F.C.

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this tendency of playing poorly in the first-half of a match was understandable at old trafford. i can imagine going to play there can be quite overwhelming, even if you've been there before. but this issue has been something that has concerned me since the swansea game.

i think it's a big problem at the moment, and the side needs to go out and start matches much more aggressively, try and get on the ball and not rely so heavily on the counter attack. especially at the hawthorns, and particularly with claudio yacob out at the moment and chris brunt playing in central midfield.

WBA 0-0 West Ham Utd.

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the home fixture with norwich was a solid home win and marked the first time this season that the baggies have taken all three points after having gone behind in a match. it was also significant that after three losses on the bounce, the albion were able to then go three games unbeaten, starting with a draw against a visiting west ham side, followed by a home win over norwich and an away win at QPR. confidence still seems high at the club, and shrugging off a poor run of results like this is another testament to the quality of steve clarke's leadership and a newly found resilience in the team's character.


against west ham, the baggies played well in the second-half after the hammers dominated their visit to the hawthorns in the early going. while the east london side had the better chances from open play, the baggies looked the more dangerous from dead ball situations. it was, however, the usual problem with a scoreless game. where a 1-0 victory snatched at the death can transform 90 minutes of otherwise mediocre football into a supremely exciting spectacle, the 0-0 draw that is at its foundation - regardless of the quality of football - is almost always a disappointment for the supporters on both sides.

Arsenal F.C. 2-0 WBA

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one of the defining characteristics of the average albion supporter is their supreme pessimism and how, over the years, they have come to expect the worst. only a few weeks ago, baggies' fans everywhere were entertaining notions of european qualification and the outside possibility of challenging for a top-five finish in the league. now they are bracing themselves for a relegation scrap. the truth of the matter is probably somewhat less dramatic than either of these possibilities.

it's time to just cool it down a bit and have a little faith.

Fulham F.C. 3-0 WBA

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as i was distracted by planning yet another trip to england (including an excursion to the hawthorns on october 6th to see west brom play QPR) i've gotten several weeks behind on my blogging. also, there's really very little positive that can be said about this performance by the baggies - other than it was not quite as one sided a match as the result would indicate.

fulham found the albion defensive weaknesses by attacking down the flanks and taking advantage of the fullbacks through both pace and transitional positioning of the wide players in the albion back-line. the londoners also had the all important advantage of an in form dmitar berbatov in front of goal demonstrating that he is a top international striker. for the baggies, however, it was just one of those days that is best forgotten. their opponents on the day found enough in the early going and west brom never really had a chance to find form.

the real turning point of the game, though, was peter odemwingie being shown a red card in the 38th minute. at his point - and barring a miracle - the albion had irretrievably lost the plot. unfortunately, miracles are all but outlawed in the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE. while it was a stupid and cynical momentary lapse in judgement, it's worth remembering that the nigerian international very rarely loses it like this and he probably deserves some leeway in light of the fact that he almost single-handedly led the baggies to a 12th place finish in the league two years ago by virtue of 15 goals scored in the league.


after the first defeat of the current campaign, all the albion can do now is not let the loss affect them. steve clarke and his side must put it out of their minds and get on with thinking about the next league fixture, where taking all three points at home to reading would continue to lay the groundwork for what has been their otherwise fine form. winning at the hawthorns should be the baggies' main priority at the moment.

it's a measure of how far west brom have come these least three seasons that there isn't a sense of panic about the fact that odemwingie will not be available for the next three competetive fixtures. two seasons ago this would have been a genuine catastrophe and baggies supporters everywhere would have been left wondering where the goals would be coming from in the nigerian striker's absence. it's a no small indication as to how far the squad has come in terms of the depth of player personel since their promotion from the CHAMPIONSHIP and should be a real point of pride for all west brom supporters.

WBA 0-0 Fulham F.C.

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the baggies haven't looked particularly good since ryan shotton nicked a last minute winner for stoke city at the hawthorns a few weeks ago. in retrospect, that moment seems to have shaken the baggies' confidence, and they don't look at all the team that put in two really solid performances against manchester united and chelsea at the start off the season.

likewise - and up until the moment of that disastrous goal, the baggies had had the better of the match with their nemesis club from staffordshire, and would have won had it not been for the goalkeeping of asmir begovic in the city goal. the stoke city keeper was in superb form, making two hugely important saves and solely deserving of the credit for the clean sheet which gave his team the opportunity to go on and snatch the late win in a match that had "0-0" written all over it.





the following two games - an ugly win at norwich city and a shameful 3-0 loss away to swansea - were particluarly undistinguished performances that left some pundits and supporters reaching for the panic button. the mainstream news media played on the hype that the albion had made its "worst ever" start to a premier league season (all six of them); the TV and radio pundits started to suggest that perhaps roy hodgson had "lost the plot"; while the gaffer's preference for a 4-4-2 attacking formation came under huge criticism in the online fan forums.

the team then gave a good away performance against everton in the league cup, only to see their efforts go to waste in a losing cause. with a 1-0 lead through a chris brunt penalty kick in the second-half, the albion again conceded a late goal - in the 88th minute - to everton defender, marouane fellaini, and forced the game into extra-time.

Everton F.C. 2-1 WBA

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from there - and much like their FA cup adventure against reading two seasons ago - the initiative had swung the way of the mersey-siders and toffees' captain, phil neville, scored the winner with 18 minutes of extra-time left. it was a scenario which should be all too familiar to any long-time albion supporter.

the gaffer admitted in the post match press conference that he had "experimented" with the team formation in the cup-tie at goodison park. no doubt, this was influenced as much by what was being written in the online supporters forums as anything else. these internet forums have, of course, been the main source of criticism of the tactical switch from last year's 4-5-1 system, as opposed to the 2 striker system that the gaffer has implemented this year.





based on what he saw of his squad in the cup game, hodgson took the idea a step further in the home fixture with fulham. he implemented a flexible 4-3-3 which had shane long leading the line, peter odemwingie in a wide position on the right-wing and jerome thomas on the left-wing. chris brunt, graham dorrans and somen tchoyi covered the midfield and joe mattock returned to the starting line-up at left-back after having had a strong run in the reserves. baggies new-comer billy jones was deployed at right-back, while gareth mcauley - who had impressed in his two previous performances - was again assigned to partner jonas olsson at centre-half.

while the mainstream media has put an ever increasing pressure on the game over the last 3 decades or so, it is the online forums and so-called "social media" that have cranked up the heat in the last few years. it is hard to imagine somehow that some crank of an unemployed ditch-digger from dudley can now have profound affect on decisions taken by a man who has master-minded world cup upsets and taken top continental sides (as well as over-achieving underdogs) to both UEFA and europa league finals. but then, a good performer knowing what his audience wants will more often than not try and give it to them.

however, part of the problem with listening to the voice of inspired, rambling amateurs is that they haven't always got the focus right. the biggest talking point among baggies fans this last few weeks has been the question of 4-5-1 versus 4-4-2. the subject has been talked to the point of distraction in endless post on sites like westbrom.com. while the last few games have seen a west brom that has sacrificed some of their creativity in the mid-field - a quality the club is known for - and is primarily looking to keep things tight at the back and breaking on the counter attack, relying on the strikers to produce goals - the baggies have looked defensively more sound than they have in quite a while, and with two clean-sheets in the first six games they have already equalled their season's total of last year.





what the supporter/pundits have to remember is that it wasn't the formation that needlessly brought down swansea midfielder, joe allen, in the penalty area, giving swans their first goal and setting the tempo for a truly rotten performance. nor was it the formation that didn't come to collect a ball bouncing into his area, giving ryan shotten an open goal in which to score a last minute winner. neither did the formation needlessly lose the ball or give away free-kicks in dangerous areas. for the most part, the baggies' downfall thus far has been technical errors entirely creditable to individual players.

so, after a first half where it looked like the worst was coming true and memories of the ill-fated 2008-09 campaign started to flash through my head, the gaffer decided enough was enough and abandoned his bodged around 4-3-3 formation, moved odemwingie back in to a central position and the baggies looked far the better side in the second-half.

although the points total is still disappointing, a clean-sheet and chris brunt hitting the post four seconds into injury time was almost enough to make you think things are going to be OK.

when johnny giles took over as the club's first player-manager in 1975, the baggies were in the 2nd division and didn't get a result for the first 10 games. giles couldn't settle on a team - let alone tactic and formation - and by his own admission wasn't playing well himself. the baggies were promoted that year, and secured it with a famous victory on a second-half goal scored by tony brown away to oldham athletic on the last day of the season.

the baggies went in to the first division and finished 7th. johnny giles had laid the groundwork for the development of what would become one of the best sides in english football of the late 1970s under the leadership of ron atkinson. sometimes a bad start is just a bad start. this should be a good enough team to get over it and they have a gaffer who knows how to lead the way.





however, i fear that the opening two losses were much more detrimental to team confidence than any of us might have imagined they could have been. in these two games, the baggies had seen how good they are and know how well they should be playing, and at the minute everyone's trying too hard. odemwingie is looking too hard for the goal. paul scharner is making rash, over-active defensive decisions. brunt is too often searching in vain for the killer pass to put someone through on goal. graham dorrans doesn't seem to know where he fits in and nothing is really clicking yet with the possible exception of new boys shane long and gareth mcauley.

right now, they just have to learn to relax and play a more complete style of football within the parameters that hodgson has set. creatively, they might need to change it up a little bit sometimes. while the long ball tactic they've adopted has worked up to a point, they also need to play through the midfield and make use of the considerable individual talents there.

if the strikers aren't scoring, look to set up chances for the other natural goal scorers in the side - namely chris brunt and graham dorrans. let's have nickey shorey taking a free-kick once in a while. he's got a good shot over a dead-ball and is more than capable of delivering a long range scorcher from the set-piece. if odemwingie is looking stiff, put somen tchoyi on as a striker - and let's maybe see simon cox have a run in the team. in short, the club need to be just a little bit more fearless and show more of a sense of their natural creativity, resource and adventure... and for god's sake - they need to RELAX!!!

Fulham F.C. 3-0 WBA

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the baggies came into this match on a run of four straight defeats, the teams' best defenders all out on injury or suspension and only the consolation of some really good performances but with no points to show for all their endeavour.

the impressive thing is that these losses haven't seemed to affect confidence amongst the starting line-up and i thought perhaps fulham might find the albion a bit of a bogey team this year, having previously lost to the baggies in the reverse fixture back at the hawthorns in october. fulham are now struggling to find last year's form which saw the cottagers finish a creditable 12th and make it to the EUROPA LEAGUE final with big wins over juventas and wolfsburg.

roberto di matteo implemented a tactically sound and intelligent game-plan for this away match to the cottagers. knowing that the baggies would almost certainly be out-muscled in crucial areas of the pitch by a bigger fulham side, the gaffer's intention was to hold a good defensive shape, don't give anything up and maintain a clean-sheet for the first half. presumably, if he could get the team in at the break at 0-0, he would have looked for a way to neutralize dickson etuhu - who won absolutely everything in the central midfield - and look to pinch a point away from home or nick a 1-0 win.



the plan appeared to be working as the baggies were within whatever injury there was to played from achieving the first aim: to keep a clean-sheet! with only about 30 second of added time gone, however, youssouf mulumbu lost the ball to etuhu in a dangerous area. the pass fell for simon davies to get in a solid, long-range strike, producing the first goal of the match.

while it was a pretty good effort from the welsh midfielder, it was clear that scott carson should have had this one. he was only about a foot or two too high off his line for optimum positioning, and would have saved easily had he been standing on the goal-line. but the baggies' captain misjudged the effort, and while he got two hands solidly behind the ball, he mishandled the shot, bundled it into the net and the cottagers found themselves with a 1-0 lead going into the break. di matteo's game-plan, which had heretofore looked to be working, was suddenly out the window, and as the second-half would show, so was their confidence.



things went from bad to worse as fulham went on to thoroughly dominate the game on all counts and twice more took advantage of the unfortunate, makeshift baggies' back-four and out-of-form goalie. dickson etuhu continued to boss the central midfield and the baggies never really looked like they were in this one.

the baggies' proclivity for giving up goals on poorly defended crosses and set-pieces continued as they went on to concede two more in this one - both headed goals by clint dempsey and brede hangeland respectively - and were 3-0 down with almost half-an-hour left to play. this was a truly dismal performance.

the exception to this being young james hurst having stepped into the squad at right-back, and gianni zuiverloon in the side at the unlikely position of centre-half. i can only hope that these two players in particular aren't affected by this otherwise miserable performance. the teenage hurst was easily the best baggies' player on the day, and zuiverloon - who has not seen much match-time this year - was more than creditable in, what for him, is an unusual position.



this has been a season of extremes for west brom. their last game against the cottagers produced a 2-1 home win and propelled the baggies into 4th place in the table. they were the undisputed form team of the league over the months of september and october. this visit to craven cottage, however, was as poor a performance as they have produced this season and drops the baggies into a four-way relegation battle with the three other birmingham/black country teams. even the 6-0 opening day thrashing at the hands of chelsea, just down the road from here, produced much better football than this.

following some good performances in a losing cause, this has to be counted as the low-point of the season and we can only pray that it doesn't get worse.

scott carson is a man who needs a rest. he has started to come under some deep criticism from the local press and has completely lost the faith of the supporters. the situation has gotten so bad, that i expect that nothing short of absolute disaster in the upcoming FA CUP fixture against reading, will keep boaz myhill from getting his first league start for the baggies when league play resumes at home to blackpool on january 15th.

WBA 2-1 Fulham F.C.

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the baggies have survived - and actually taken impressive points from - what can only be described as a period of "bonus" opportunities, from which no-one really expected too much and any gains made, at all, would be counted as success. west bromwich albion now enter a series of matches which will be seen as an essential source of necessary points, and much more important in the overall scheme of things than a set of seemingly (and at their outset) next-to-impossible away fixtures against the top clubs in the country.

at the start of league play in august, and from looking at the fixtures list, this is the time of year where everyone would have expected the season to really be starting for the baggies. so to have made a good start in the league is not only a surprise, but a major accomplishment and important points garnered that precious few were expecting.

in fact, the baggies have exceeded the wildest of expectations and for a few hours on saturday night/sunday morning of this past weekend, at least, they sat it in fourth place overall behind chelsea, manchester city and tottenham hotspur. they are playing some of the best football in the league and are arguably the league's "form" team over the last two months.



after the exploits of recent weeks, the albion faithful have finally started to warm to roberto di matteo; which, is something that has been curiously long in coming. even with the success of last season and his superb preparation and signings for the upcoming top-flight campaign, the ex-chelsea midfielder and MK dons boss may have finally eclipsed the likes of bryan robson and tony mowbray in the hearts of the albion faithful, but he has a few games to win yet before he'll be as well regarded and esteemed as gary megson, who is still seen as the man who built the modern club's on-field character, and laid the foundations for subsequent claims to premiership football.

after the manchester united match, i started to imagine how di matteo - who was a well respected professional that played league and international football at its highest level - may one day eclipse his achievements as a player and go on to become one of football's great managers.

"good managers make good sides," brian clough once explained, "there's no such thing as a side making a manager."

what has been true of the albion this season, is that every game has been superbly managed. the gaffer has been adventurous when he's needed to be and he's made good decisions with both the team and the tactics. not only that, but he seems to have an especially good rapport with the players and is a gaffer for whom most players would really want to play - as well as feel encouraged to do so. there's more than a few members of the team who were languishing in the reserves or perpetually stuck on the bench who were immediately switched on by his arrival at the club; where under tony mowbray they'd been unhappy, under played and in some cases, wanting to leave.



as the albion seem to have done for the last 50 years or so, they went behind in this one with less than nine minutes played. ex-baggie, zoltan gera, found himself with time and space, setting up a clear shot at goal from 25 yards out, following a poor mistake by youssouf mulumbu, giving the ball away in a dangerous area. while a diving scott carson got a hand to the ball, managing to push it onto the post, it rebounded unkindly for the west brom captain and bounced into the net off the back of his leg.

appropriately, the hungarian international and ex-hathorns favourite diplomatically waved away any goal celebration in remembering the four years that he spent as a very popular first-team player at west brom.

the baggies came close to going two goals behind a couple of minutes later, as a poor back-pass was pounced on by another ex-albion favourite, diomansy kamara, but the fulham striker shot just wide.

eight minutes after the opening goal, however, mulumbu made up for his earlier mistake to bring the baggies level. uncharacteristically the congolese midfielder went forward in attack and took a superb through ball from chris brunt that completely split the fulham defence and the baggies were back on level terms as marc schwarzer was left stranded without a chance and mulumbu with his first PREMIER LEAGUE goal.

true to form, the baggies took the lead before half-time as a second albion player also got his name onto the score-sheet for the first time this season.



west brom went ahead on marc-antoine fortune's first goal of the season, but not without some controversy. fortune was clearly in an off-side position when the ball was played in. however, the french striker had turned away from the play to move back onside, leaving the ball to run on for albion left-winger, jerome thomas. thomas cut in along the bi-line and with the fulham defence once again caught square, he sent the ball back across the face of goal for - the now onside - fortune to slot home.

predictably, the legitimacy of both goals was questioned by fulham boss, mark hughes. however, neither goal was inconsistant with how the off-side rule is being interpreted or applied this season. so i think neither was really as contentious as the welshman would have us believe.

the albion now have a nine day break from league football, with a LEAGUE CUP 5th round match with leicester city at the walkers stadium on tuesday. the baggies are firm favourites to take a place in the quarter finals from this fixture.

with a trip to bloomfield road a week monday - and full live international TV coverage - both blackpool and west brom will have a chance of showing a larger audience the quality of their football; and with both of last year's fixtures seeing west brom produce a pair of 3-2 victories (including a contentious penalty decision), the tangerines - and manager, ian holloway - will feel the need to be playing for a little retribution. it should be great fun and good football!

Old Baggies Never Fade Away...

it seems, these days, that they just get transfered to fulham football club. much to my surprise, the man who has captained the albion - and i think probably been their most consistent player - for much of the last 5 seasons, has requested a transfer; almost invariably so that he can end his playing days in a premiership side that has acheived some measure of consolidation in the top flight. the club in question - and the only one reported to have put in a bid for him so far, has been the recent destination for 1 or 2 of his ex-teammates who've gone on and done well there too; and that's fulham f.c.

what thoroughly surprises me is that i've come to see jonathan greening as being the embodiment and individually most representative player for the albion over these past few years, and thought he had an eye to staying in football beyond his playing career. i took it for granted that west brom was where he would want to do this - much like tony brown before him, and take advantage of the opportunity to go into coaching and other areas of the game - perhaps even management - but always west bromwich albion to the end!

his request for transfer is also - and quite suddenly, i might add - out of step with his declarations within the last couple of months of his loyalty to the albion and calling for his teammates to stay and show similar commitment to the club - and in light of paul robinson now going to bolton, and marc-antoine fortune signing with tony mowbray's celtic... so this brings me to the question - and considering the time-line involved in these events: has the arrival of roberto di matteo at the hawthorns had any influence in greening's now wanting a transfer, where he seemed to want to stay before? what does this bode for the future?

again, it throws the appointment of di matteo as "head coach", and the club's switch to a european style of club management into question. what type of manager is di matteo going to be? anybody who's watched football in the last 15 years knows what a great player he was; but, he seems much less popular with the fans whom he has had to serve in the recent past. there was a post on the BBC 606 from an MK dons supporter, warning that he will ruin the constitutional structure of the albion playing style and replace it with a boring italian (read: defensive) style of football.

while some of the dons results would tend to bear this out; i would suggest that DM is at an early enough stage of his career (the baggies is only his second appointment at the helm of a club) that he may not truly have found a particular or committed style yet; and is, at this point, just concerned with producing good results with whatever situation is at hand. his record from last year as the dons' gaffer saw him manage the team to 27 wins, 11 losses, 14 draws; and was good enough to take them into the play-offs where they ultimately lost the two-legged semi-final 7-6 on penalties to scunthorpe united. while i saw both legs of the encounter, i could not make much of an estimation as to di matteo's management style - or what type of football he prefers to see his teams play. but his achievements at MK showed that he relied on good defensive performances, as the team did produce an awful lot of single goal wins in a large number of low scoring games. but then, perhaps he was clever enough to know that this was the constitutional nature of the team, and he played it to its strengths?

in the final analysis, he took a freshly promoted club from league 2 and led them to a place in the promotion playoffs for a place in the championship - and came up short only on a missed penalty by ex-teammate and super veteran tore andre flo. so in the end - i just don't know... let's hope that jonno has a different motivation for wanting to leave other than a lack of faith in the new gaffer - or perhaps he knows something that we don't?

more than likely though, i believe that it is just another example of the ever widening gap - both financially and in terms of prestige between the first and second tiers of english football, making the type of loyalty that was practiced in professional football prior to the massive money and pure pop culture of today impossible for all but a particular type of individual who we have not seen in a long time and may never encounter again. after all, fulham is a team that i think is fairly well suited to a player like jonno, and he should do well there.

in the 1976 FA CUP final, contested by perennial 1st division power-house manchester united; and (then) mid-table 2nd division club southampton; arguably the most pre-eminent international who played in that match was the saints' mike channon. in era's previous to this, famed internationals played routinely in the old 2nd division. but now - in the days of the premier league - the english national side doesn't consider anyone outside the premiership, who isn't a regular starter for his club; and - goalies aside - generally they try and keep selection for international duty to the really big clubs. this is a reflection of how much the prestige gap between the "big four"/consolidated premiership teams, the relegation/promotion battlers, and the established championship teams has grown considerably since the founding of the premier league; and in the process destroyed the possibility for an individual to choose to be loyal to a team - in a professional context anyway.

if a footballer has international aspirations, then he is forced to request transfer upon relegation of his current club. stewart downing at middlesbrough is making the news today as he has been transfered to aston villa for £12 million. here is a case where a young man had come through the academy system, and gone on to play for the local team he had grown up with and had supported as a boy. one of his quotes to the press - as reported on the BBC - was particularly poignant in addressing the situation:

"I loved the last World Cup, but I want to play a bigger part this time. I have to be with a good Premier League side if I want to do that... I hope the fans understand that I'm ambitious and want to win things and this move gives me a chance of that. But I'll always be a Boro fan."

as far as the english national side goes, it weakens the whole structure, by possibly limiting itself out of players who might become good - and useful - international footballers. as we've seen in the past, good club players and those who can shine in the forum of international play are very often made of completely different stuff. especially nowadays, when the ratio of foreign players in the premiership would make it more of a cosmopolitan league, and not necessarily where the best english players at any given position might be playing. in short, i would contend that while the premiership is the finest cosmopolitan football league in the world, and definitely the place to go and seek out one's best and brightest; just don't discount the quality of the much more overtly "english" championship league, and some of the really good young potential english internationals to languish in someone else's - or even popular opinion's - underestimation of what one might find there.

for example, with the number of english goalies who play in the premier league limited to a very few, it's very possible that the national side doesn't have the best english goalie playing for them. considering the number of internationals from the smaller footballing nations who have players currently active in the championship - i would imagine that this potential oversight is very possible.

jonno, however, is not an international and has no such interests to protect. he has, as well, declared that if the club receive no reasonable offer for him, he'll continue to don the navy the white stripes and play his hardest to get the baggies promoted again. in these days of miracle and wonder, of multi million pound transfers, of domestic league domination by a highly predictable few and choices dictated by highly prohibitive costs and standards; the concept of "loyalty" - the idea of a man dedicating himself to the improvement of a whole of which he is a committed and influential part, is a long lost quality whose capabilities to achieve... to create a victorious intangible, will never again be seen in the top-flights of professional football. let's hope that we traded it in for something of equal value.