Steve Clark sacked

Johner

On SSN now.

Bit harsh.

Johner

http://www.wba.co.uk/news/article/clarke-relieved-of-duties-1236295.aspx

Official WBA Statement

WEST Bromwich Albion have this evening relieved Head Coach Steve Clarke of his duties and placed him on gardening leave with immediate effect.



This was the unanimous decision of the Football Club's Board of Directors following a disappointing performance throughout 2013.



Albion have won only seven of their 34 Barclays Premier League games during the calendar year – a 20 per cent win percentage yielding a total of only 31 points – despite a substantial investment in the first-team squad.



Joint-Assistant Head Coach Keith Downing will assume control of first-team affairs whilst the Club considers all available options for a new Head Coach.



Sporting & Technical Director Richard Garlick said: “We have reluctantly come to the decision to relieve Steve of his duties after very careful consideration.



“It has been well documented that we have not had the rub of the green in certain games this season but that does not cloud the generally disappointing points return during this calendar year, culminating in today’s fourth-successive defeat at Cardiff.



“This Club's track record proves we do not take such decisions lightly, having only enforced a change in this position three times in approximately 14 years.



“But with key games coming thick and fast, we felt it was important we acted now to give the Club the best possible chance of a successful outcome this season.



“Our player wage bill is the highest in the Club’s history and we feel we have built a squad capable of being very competitive in the Premier League.



"We now begin the search to find a new Head Coach who will work within our existing structure, which has been in place for the past six years.”



Clarke’s assistant Kevin Keen has also been placed on gardening leave.



"On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Steve and Kevin for their efforts over the past 18 months,” added Garlick.



“We wish them and their families well for the future.”



The Board will make no further comment until a new Head Coach has been appointed.

Read more at http://www.wba.co.uk/news/article/clarke-relieved-of-duties-1236295.aspx#G2pzEDqs8b7xQwrI.99

ShaneU

That's what losing to Cardiff gets you.

Vinz Mesrine

I'd take him back at Liverpool in a heartbeat.

Vurnon San Benito

Alan Curbishley is ready to return..

Copper_pipe

Mike phelan to get it I'd say

Or else Owen coyle

Kiwi_knock

They have been rubbish for the last year, the fans had given up on him so it is no real surprise. With the players they have they should be doing a lot better.

Not sure who they will look to bring in though as Head Coach, can see them looking in the Championship though.

Aenaes

Paolo Di Caniooooooooo

The_Kew_Tour

A joke really is.

Football is going to the dogs with this carry on.

ThunbergsAreGo

Record in 2013 is dire
Can see why they did it now, gives time to get someone in before the transfer window

rob316

Fat sam the next one to get the bullet.

Paully D

Massive game coming up for them next week at home to Hull.

ArmaniJeanss

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

A joke really is.

Football is going to the dogs with this carry on.

Seems a perfectly reasonable decision by the board.

Moneymaker

rob316 wrote: »

Fat sam the next one to get the bullet.

Can't wait.

kryogen

Wouldn't mind seeing him sitting in the dug out next to Moyes as it goes

Paully D

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

A joke really is.

Football is going to the dogs with this carry on.

I really don't get this. Apart from a good first half of the season in his first year his team have been rubbish. They're two points away from relegation and have some big games coming up, games that it's very unlikely Clarke would see results from based on his record.

People said it about us when Di Canio was sacked, and Martin O'Neill too, but what's the alternative? It's clear it's not working and they're better off taking a gamble on someone else as opposed to riding it out with Clarke when it's clearly not working.

Owen_S

The team relied too much on an on-loan striker. Could see Martin Jol getting the job.

wandatowell

Owen_S wrote: »

The team relied too much on an on-loan striker. Could see Martin Jol getting the job.

The way the squads turned against him at both Ajax and Fulham I'd keep him out of WBA

Dolph Starbeam

Very poor record. I like Steve Clark and I don't like teams changing managers too quick but they needed to do something.

kryogen

YayaBanana wrote: »

Very poor record. I like Steve Clark and I don't like teams changing managers too quick but they needed to do something.

I think some guys are great assistants/coaches, but not so great number ones.

Clark has always been in that category for me, he deserved his shot at a big job, he got it, and he hasn't succeeded, he would be welcome at plenty of clubs as a coach or assistant I am certain. Like I said I would take him at United.

He may go on and become a good manager somewhere else, and good luck t him if he does. I can only give my own opinion on the man.

I don't think this is one of those shocking sackings, I think it is pretty reasonable on the part of the board and they gave their reasoning logically about it.

manutd

WBA season has been a bit strange though - beat Man Utd, drew against Arsenal and Everton, and extremely close to beating Chelsea. The two points lost with that peno were vital.

The_Kew_Tour

Paully D wrote: »

I really don't get this. Apart from a good first half of the season in his first year his team have been rubbish. They're two points away from relegation and have some big games coming up, games that it's very unlikely Clarke would see results from based on his record.

People said it about us when Di Canio was sacked, and Martin O'Neill too, but what's the alternative? It's clear it's not working and they're better off taking a gamble on someone else as opposed to riding it out with Clarke when it's clearly not working.

They aint no Barcelona. West Brom aint a huge club.

Where would you expect West Brom to be?

BNMC

7 wins from 34 league games in 2013. Only 31 points won. 2 points off relegation zone. Good decision IMO, better to try and remedy it now rather than later in the season when it's too late.

Agent Coulson

I think a lot was said when he himself stated he was a headcoach not a manager. I don't think anyone will say he is not a very good coach. But to run a club you need to manage a lot more that just coaching players. I think Chris Hougton falls into the same category good coaches but not managers.

kryogen

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

They aint no Barcelona. West Brom aint a huge club.

Where would you expect West Brom to be?

I really depends on where they are in terms of the wages table

Going from what the board said I am going to assume they have a pretty decent spend on wages now and they feel that they should be doing better over the last 12 months. a 20% win rate is nothing to write home about and as sackings go I wouldn't get up in arms about it.

The noose tightened around his neck when he was let down by Lukaku going to Everton, but then again that is down to poor planning, he should not have relied so heavily on a player he doesn't own.

JPA

Owen_S wrote: »

The team relied too much on an on-loan striker. Could see Martin Jol getting the job.

Former player so a good chance.
But he went out with a whimper at Fulham so that might not look good.

IvySlayer

Di Matteo to return?

Paully D

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

They aint no Barcelona. West Brom aint a huge club.

Where would you expect West Brom to be?

It doesn't matter whether they're Barcelona or Bromley. The fact is the team is underachieving and have only won three games from 16 all year (two against teams currently in the relegation zone in Sunderland and Palace) and one since September (Palace).

I would expect West Brom to be upper mid-table, aiming for a top ten finish as I would with other sides down there such as Fulham, West Ham and Sunderland.

Sure, they're four points away from 10th, but they really do look awful and I don't think you can call them for making a decision when there's so much at stake and they look in great danger of dropping into the relegation zone as things stand. With Hull, Spurs, Newcastle, West Ham and Palace to come over Christmas they will be hoping to get the new manager bounce and rack up enough to move away.

Small clubs deserve to have ambition too. Why should they settle for just staying up?

Drexel

When I seen this I straight away thought it was harsh. That they were just struggling without Lukaku but 7 wins out of 34 is a terrible record and half of that was when they had Lukaku. Doesnt look like he could turn it around so this could be for the best

LiamoSail

IvySlayer wrote: »

Di Matteo to return?

Why? They sacked him after he failed in the job previously with a similar quality side and finances. What's changed?

The_Kew_Tour

Paully D wrote: »

It doesn't matter whether they're Barcelona or Bromley. The fact is the team is underachieving and have only won three games from 16 all year (two against teams currently in the relegation zone in Sunderland and Palace) and one since September (Palace).

I would expect West Brom to be upper mid-table, aiming for a top ten finish as I would with other sides down there such as Fulham, West Ham and Sunderland.

Sure, they're four points away from 10th, but they really do look awful and I don't think you can call them for making a decision when there's so much at stake and they look in great danger of dropping into the relegation zone as things stand. With Hull, Spurs, Newcastle, West Ham and Palace to come over Christmas they will be hoping to get the new manager bounce and rack up enough to move away.

Small clubs deserve to have ambition too. Why should they settle for just staying up?

Of course it matters!!!

Nothing wrong with having ambition.. Evey Club should. But you have to be realistic too.

Spurs, Newcastle and West Ham are bigger clubs then West Brom.

They have only been back up since 10/11 season. RDM had them playing well and that carried on somewhat to PL. But that was going to ease of too.

Mars Bar

rob316 wrote: »

Fat sam the next one to get the bullet.

Mod

I advise you go read the charter again and get re-acquainted with some of the rules.

Paully D

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Of course it matters!!!

Nothing wrong with having ambition.. Evey Club should. But you have to be realistic too.

Spurs, Newcastle and West Ham are bigger clubs then West Brom.

They have only been back up since 10/11 season. RDM had them playing well and that carried on somewhat to PL. But that was going to ease of too.

So you think they should have just stuck with Clarke hoping to sneak enough points to stay up? Despite the fact that they have only won 7/34 games for a 20% win percentage in 2013. I wouldn't like you as the chairman if I were a West Brom fan

I agree you have to be realistic of course, but there's no way they should settle for the position they are in at the minute. None.

They probably won't get a result away to Spurs anyway, but home to Newcastle, Hull and Palace and away to West Ham should be a target of 7 points at least. Are you saying they shouldn't get results against them just because the opposition are bigger clubs? West Brom beat Manchester United at Old Trafford this season in one of their only good performances so that doesn't matter at all.

Newcastle came back up at the same time as West Brom and have played in the Europa League and now look like they'll challenge for the top six again.

Rikand

Sad to see him go but the stats don't lie

Owen_S

Rikand wrote: »

Sad to see him go but the stats don't lie

They do to an extent - amount of wins and in win % aren't great to go by when judging league form, point per game is much better.

Paully D

Owen_S wrote: »

They do to an extent - amount of wins and in win % aren't great to go by when judging league form, point per game is much better.

Less than 1 this season. 15 points from 16 games.

The_Kew_Tour

Paully D wrote: »

So you think they should have just stuck with Clarke hoping to sneak enough points to stay up? Despite the fact that they have only won 7/34 games for a 20% win percentage in 2013. I wouldn't like you as the chairman if I were a West Brom fan

I agree you have to be realistic of course, but there's no way they should settle for the position they are in at the minute. None.

They probably won't get a result away to Spurs anyway, but home to Newcastle, Hull and Palace and away to West Ham should be a target of 7 points at least. Are you saying they shouldn't get results against them just because the opposition are bigger clubs? West Brom beat Manchester United at Old Trafford this season in one of their only good performances so that doesn't matter at all.

Newcastle came back up at the same time as West Brom and have played in the Europa League and now look like they'll challenge for the top six again.

I do and I think they would have stayed up. Of course we will never know now.

I think any luck they have had in the games I have seen them this season has not fallen there way either.

Every club should strive to be the best they can be for fans.

Im not saying they should not get results because they are bigger clubs then WBA, what im saying is that there is only 20 places up for grabs in PL this season. For a club like West Brom to be in PL is good achievement. Bar maybe Norwich and Hull there is no clubs above them to avoid embarrassment.

They are ahead of couple decent clubs and plenty of others in Championship.

kryogen

They are on the slide though, the way they finished last season and started this season attest to that. The board have obviously seen nothing in the past 12 months to convince them Steve can turn this around, as I said, they make a point of bringing up the wage bill, they obviously feel they should be doing better considering how much they pay out. Maybe they are right?

I don't know how much they spend on wages, nor where they rank in the table in that regard, but I do think its significant that it is mentioned in the statement.

Panthro

If he returns to Chelsea (before the Arsenal game) and sorts out the defensive woes, it would only be lovely!
And bring in Wilkins too Jose!

The_Kew_Tour

kryogen wrote: »

They are on the slide though, the way they finished last season and started this season attest to that. The board have obviously seen nothing in the past 12 months to convince them Steve can turn this around, as I said, they make a point of bringing up the wage bill, they obviously feel they should be doing better considering how much they pay out. Maybe they are right?

I don't know how much they spend on wages, nor where they rank in the table in that regard, but I do think its significant that it is mentioned in the statement.

I guess the end of the season will tell a lot.

Gavlor

di matteo and jol leading the running early on

kryogen

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I guess the end of the season will tell a lot.

Not sure what you mean?

To clarify, the end of the season will now be completely different then if they had just kept Clark either way, we will never know whether he would have kept them up or took them down. So it will not be possible to make any assumption on the next man in doing a better or worse job then Clark would have in terms of the end of the season.

Paully D

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I do and I think they would have stayed up. Of course we will never know now.

I think any luck they have had in the games I have seen them this season has not fallen there way either.

Every club should strive to be the best they can be for fans.

Im not saying they should not get results because they are bigger clubs then WBA, what im saying is that there is only 20 places up for grabs in PL this season. For a club like West Brom to be in PL is good achievement. Bar maybe Norwich and Hull there is no clubs above them to avoid embarrassment.

They are ahead of couple decent clubs and plenty of others in Championship.

I actually think they would have stayed up too, but I can't criticism them for making the choice to sack him when their record over the last year justifies the decision and they can't buy a win at present with some huge home games coming up in the next few weeks.

I don't agree with the luck argument though, but that's because I could list ten or fifteen decisions that have gone against my own struggling team and I'm sure every team in the league could too. Most teams down at the bottom tend to have a lot of luck go against them but a lot of the time it is self-inflicted, hence their poor results.

I agree being in the Premier League is a good achievement for West Brom but it shouldn't stop there. Spending 75% of their wages on turnover last season and probably (I'm just making an educated guess here) increasing that again this year due to the signings of players like Anelka and Sessegnon who will be on canny money, I'd be expecting a much greater return than 2 points off the relegation zone and 3 wins all season.

They should be aiming to finish above the two you mentioned, plus Stoke, Villa, Cardiff and Swansea. No reason why they shouldn't. Southampton are doing well despite this only being their second year back in the league. Newcastle only came back up at the same time as West Brom but are flying this year.

Amirani

Gavlor wrote: »

di matteo and jol leading the running early on

Can't see Jol lasting the distance in any sort of running.

I'd be surprised if Di Matteo got the job back too.

kryogen

Gavlor wrote: »

di matteo and jol leading the running early on

If Jol keeps gets another job in the premier league his agent needs to get a whopper bonus

jimjamcos

Think it's one of the harshest sackings yet. Massively overachieved last season and as a result tied the noose for his own neck. Lost his top scorer but still beat United, got robbed against Chelsea and had little luck in other games. Also played an okayish brand of football and represented the club with real class in all media duties. Can think of little he did wrong bar signing one mule from Everton.

Hope they go down now. It's the least they deserve.

kryogen

jimjamcos wrote: »

Think it's one of the harshest sackings yet. Massively overachieved last season and as a result tied the noose for his own neck. Lost his top scorer but still beat United, got robbed against Chelsea and had little luck in other games. Also played an okayish brand of football and represented the club with real class in all media duties. Can think of little he did wrong bar signing one mule from Everton.

Hope they go down now. It's the least they deserve.

They have won 7 league games this calendar year.

Its not like they finished the season strong last season and just started poorly this season.

They were poor after Christmas last season, they have been poor this season. Just because he was a likeable guy doesn't make the WBA board dickheads.

Gavlor

jimjamcos wrote: »

Think it's one of the harshest sackings yet. Massively overachieved last season and as a result tied the noose for his own neck. Lost his top scorer but still beat United, got robbed against Chelsea and had little luck in other games. Also played an okayish brand of football and represented the club with real class in all media duties. Can think of little he did wrong bar signing one mule from Everton.

Hope they go down now. It's the least they deserve.

6.5 million for anichebe was daylight robbery. infact kenwright shold be jailed for fraud on the back of 34.5 million for felliani and big vic!

Still think clark's sacking is harsh though

CSF

Didn't realise 2013 had been as bad as it had been, as such this has taken me massively by surprise.

jimjamcos

kryogen wrote: »

They have won 7 league games this calendar year.

Its not like they finished the season strong last season and just started poorly this season.

They were poor after Christmas last season, they have been poor this season. Just because he was a likeable guy doesn't make the WBA board dickheads.

You can take any period of games to prove a particular viewpoint but fact remains, West Brom finished 8th last season, a real positive result. Clarke struggled to replace Lukaku and bought a dud or two but the least he deserved was more than one transfer window to fix his sides problems given his decent record in market and on pitch before then.

kryogen

CSF wrote: »

Didn't realise 2013 had been as bad as it had been, as such this has taken me massively by surprise.

I was the same till I looked at the results the last 12 months.