The Diary

20 December 2004: An Open Letter To Bryan Robson

Dear Bryan,

Being one of the anonymous many thousands who worshipped you from afar in those halcyon days of the late seventies, when your silky midfield skills were the talk of the Midlands, and, later still, the nation, you probably don?t know me at all, and you probably never will, but that?s OK. Your planet, full of the trappings of success, fast cars, bling, expensive Italian-tailored suits, guarded mansions in leafy suburbs somewhere, is totally incompatible with my somewhat drab alternative ? living in a borough that?s one of the most deprived in the country is light years away from your super-rich lifestyle - but if we both try hard enough, I?m sure it?s possible to share some common ground, somewhere. That?s why I?d be grateful if you could just spare a little time from your busy managerial schedule to hear out the words of a somewhat troubled trainee Old Fart for a minute.

The reason I?m wearily putting digit to keyboard in the early hours of Monday morning is primarily because of the rapidly increasing sense of unease that I?m experiencing following your appointment as manager, some five or so weeks ago. Don?t get me wrong; I can?t and won?t buy into the viewpoint of prematurely calling for your head, as some Albion supporters have done already, mainly those who didn?t want you here in the first place. It?s just that with almost a month and a half gone since the marriage ceremony took place in a welter of publicity, things are rapidly taking a worrying turn, and I now sadly perceive our relationship deteriorating alarmingly.

When I first heard of your appointment, I will admit to some nagging initial doubts, quickly replaced by further, far more rational thoughts centring around the heartwarmingly feel-good concept of a once-favourite son finally returning to the welcoming bosom of the family after a silly argument lasting some 24 years or so. Enough time to raise a couple of kids to maturity in the meantime, if you like. Or, for that matter, enough to see a club plunge two divisions lower than was the case when you and we first decided to part company, only to tortuously find our way back to the Promised Land again in the intervening years, not once, but twice. Whatever, that?s all water under the bridge, now; the point I want to make is that when you first took on the job, being ?one of the family? as it were, I was desperately hoping that you could make a go of things, stabilise the Hawthorns ship, and stuff the derogatory words of the doubters straight back down their throats.

At first, it genuinely did seem that would be the case. Take that point gained at Highbury, for example. Despite a somewhat curious loss of form over recent weeks, Arsene Wenger?s lot were never going to be an easy proposition; full credit to you for coming up with the game-plan that would see us getting a well-deserved point from the encounter. And there was encouraging news from the training-ground as well; reports that you?d ditched the confrontational and dictatorial style of the previous incumbent, with quiet counsel and consultation the king instead. Players were now being treated like adults rather than naughty little children, which came as music to the ears of this supporter, who has many years experience dealing with people, their varying problems and foibles, plus ways of motivating them to give of their best when occasion required them to do so. And realised precisely how soul-destroying such a negatively-oriented regime could be.

And then it suddenly started to go badly wrong. Why? Not being party to what goes on in the dressing room, I?ll never really know, I suppose; the only genuine input I do have is that over the space of but a few short weeks, we went from being a side that on paper at least had all the necessary skills and motivation to extricate themselves from the awful mess they found themselves in, to one whose rapid slide down the Premiership table would have made competitors in the famed Cresta Bobsleigh Run positively green with envy.

Sure, it?s not totally your fault, and many great names in domestic football have expressed profound sympathy for the parlous position you currently find yourself in. Take yesterday?s opposing gaffer, Steve Bruce, for example. Even he had the good grace to publicly opine post-match that because of the current transfer rules, whatever the situation, you were effectively stuck with players bequeathed by the previous gaffer, and, for good or ill, could only work with what you had. The results have been all-too apparent. And yes, there have also been occasions when I?ve felt you were the victim of rank bad luck, like the time during the Man United game you had to pull off two players through injury in quick succession, one being Big Dave, whose absence from the first team has coincided with other sides going through our defence like a hot knife through butter. Up to that point, we?d held them extremely well; once they?d departed, our game then degenerated into an almighty rout.

And, while we?re on the subject, what about your players? The selfsame ones who complained so loudly and bitterly about not being treated like rational adults by the previous manager? Sure, I don?t suppose all the recent upheavals have been much fun for them, either, but you really do have to question what they?re about, right now. I genuinely understand it?s bloody hard to suddenly discard a hump-and-thump defensively-orientated philosophy carefully cultivated over the course of the past four years or so, and no argument whatsoever tolerated, but isn?t it high time they, too, started to take some responsibility for what?s happening right now? They can?t exactly blame the nasty man with the balding ginger thatch on top any more; he?s sitting by the fireside right now, and probably getting his football fix courtesy of satellite TV, so what?s their new excuse?

God knows you?ve tried to improve things for them; it must have come as quite a shock to the system to be suddenly (and genuinely) solicited for their opinion regarding football-related matters. You would have thought our players would have been absolutely delighted by such a positive turnaround in managerial style, and desired even more to repay their new gaffer by turning it on for him every Saturday ninety minutes ? but quite the opposite seems to have occurred. It?s now abundantly clear that morale and team spirit have both plunged precipitously over the course of the last few weeks, and this I genuinely don?t understand. Their actions on the pitch are quite clearly not in accordance with your (presumed) pre-match instructions. Is it simply because our players, rendered mute and deficient of rational thought by constant touchline bawlings-out, are now quite incapable of being spontaneous, creative, using their brains and not brawn on the field of play for once, I wonder? Or is it simply a knock-on effect from a succession of awful tankings taken in recent times? Whatever the real reason, it?s a highly-worrying development.

What is singularly lacking from our current side right now is basic skill, the ability to comfortably receive the ball, then send it winging on its way to the next man. That, plus intelligent movement, both on and off the ball. In short, the same type of skills that made you such a household name all those years ago. Many is the time recently I?ve seen promising attacking moves break down through sheer inertia, an unwillingness on the part of team-mates to make themselves more available for passes, shake off markers, help a team-mate, speed the attack. We also badly lack sufficient initiative or ability to break out of defence quickly, switch play to opponents? half of the field with a searing series of penetrative passes. That, plus a seeming reluctance to apply the ?killer ball? when in close proximity to goal. It?s all about speed of thought, as well as body; to stay in this division, a side simply has to have it, otherwise they?re dead in the water before they?ve even started. All the above attributes most of our fellow-travellers in this division have in heaps, which is why they?re sitting pretty in mid-table, or higher, even, and why we?re currently teetering on the brink.

That now brings me to the most painful part of my missive, examining more closely your own role in the sadly-pernicious decline of our football club. To be perfectly frank, some of your more recent actions and decisions simply haven?t made coherent footballing sense, especially when seen from the viewpoint of someone having no particular axe to grind with anyone currently at the club. You might have had extensive managerial experience with Middlesbrough, some seven years there as head-honcho, in fact, and quite successful ones at that, relatively speaking, but even a cursory look at recent Albion team selections and substitutions would seem to totally belie that very fact. In fact, what parallels I do currently see relate to yet another managerial appointment viewed with disapproval by grass-root supporters, one plagued by baffling team selections and tactics, and also badly affected by the blight of ignominious decline. And eventually forced to leave because of adverse supporter-opinion, coupled with an inability to maintain the respect of players. Ever heard of Bobby Gould, Bryan?

Examples? Where do you want me to start? Let?s look at the basics; first off, despite having had several weeks now to establish the strengths and weaknesses of your squad, you still persist in making totally-unsuitable team selections, and of the ones currently in the side, you still insist on playing some totally out of position. Not exactly being party to what goes on in your mind, I?m of necessity looking at events from the outside in, as it were, but following yesterday?s latest humiliation, nothing on Earth will ever again convince me Darren Purse should even figure in your plans, never mind be a regular first-team player. The man is a complete liability, full-stop, and should be dropped ? from the top floor of a very high building, preferably, after letting us down so badly at Pompey, versus Charlton, then, much worse, by well and truly putting the skids under our hopes of getting anything at all within the space of a few opening minutes at St. Andrews, yesterday. The same also applies to the unfortunate Bernt Hass. If he?s a Premiership footballer, then I?m the next queen of England. Get rid. Now.

Albrechtson? Just what good is he to anyone? He must be the most costly ornament the club have ever purchased. Scimeca? Why are you still playing him totally out of position, Bryan? As for Kanu, just a brace over the course of seventeen games isn?t exactly a prolific stream of strikes, is it? It?s time to do a rapid cost-benefit analysis, Bryan; why you still persist in selecting him, and totally in the face of much more valid claims from those equally qualified to lead what passes for our attack these days, is a source of constant bafflement to me. Is there something about the terms and conditions of Mister Kanu?s contract we should all know about? And, while I?m on the subject of strikers, even a Sunday League coach wouldn?t leave quietly festering on the bench the only player capable of finding the net these days. And, arguably much worse, then substitute him for the only player seemingly able to provide a reasonable supply of defence-splitting passes and crosses for him. And, when I come to think about it, neglect to deploy Horsfield in a role more suited to his true abilities, too late, or not at all, as per both the Charlton and Blues games. Just what the hell is going on out there?

As for the short term future, sure, there?s always the January transfer window, but realistically, both of us know it?ll be much too late by then. I?m constantly amazed you can still speak of obtaining new blood come the New Year with a straight face. Do you honestly believe our chairman is going to chuck piles of cash your way come midnight on the 31st of this month? If you do, I?d be seriously worried about my mental health if I were you. The current board is totally comprised of people who have made their pile out there in the hard-nosed killing-fields of the Stock Exchange; altruism isn?t exactly considered a prime asset within the penny-pinching circles they move in. Being of the bean-counting fraternity, the only thing that will ever evoke a pleasurable response from them is the merry sound of tills a-jingling, and in their world, you don?t chuck money at something so clearly destined for the main sewerage drain. Get real.

Sure, I?m perfectly aware that you have numerous connections within the game, plus the fact you?d be looking towards calling in a few favours from your fellow gaffers, eventually ? but one thing above all puzzles me the most. As you genuinely seem to count most of the game?s prime movers and shakers among your close friends, have you ever tried seeking advice from them, or, conversely, ever been given similar as a spontaneous gesture from one or some of them? If you have at some stage or another, then why is it you then went on to make the basic errors to which I referred a paragraph or so ago? That?s the part I simply don?t understand; even if you never went down that particular road, simply relied on your own instincts and judgments, surely the seven years spent at Boro must have counted for something? It?s not as if they were just a bottom-two division side when you first joined them; being in what was then the Nationwide First Division isn?t exactly Sunday League standard, is it? And, after a promotion or two, closely followed by a relegation hiccup or two, you then went on to take them to a couple of Cup finals, with a League Cup one chucked in for good measure. Not exactly the hallmark of a Premiership na?f, is it?

And even the Bradford managerial experience, brief as it was, surely must have taught you the realities of trying to motivate a side effectively trying to urinate against the wind, as far as survival was concerned. And on a budget on a par with that of a family on Income Support. That?s what?s worrying me, really; the fact that despite a wealth of experience at both ends of the football spectrum, you currently seem lacking in sufficient managerial nous to do something constructive about our current plight. And then there?s your Number Two, Nigel Pearson; someone who used to coach League managers for examinations to obtain qualifications validating them for future employment at the game?s pinnacle. I genuinely can?t believe someone capable of doing that could be daft enough to agree with some of the awful judgment calls you?ve made recently.

Being a supporter who first saw you emerge from the youth ranks, do your time in the reserves, watched spellbound your rapid transformation from a gawky and awkward-looking kid into a seasoned performer at both club and international level, and all despite two broken legs in fairly-rapid succession, I desperately want you to turn it around, provide me with a happy ending to this particular fairy-tale, make me want to believe we?re still worth supporting, but I?m finding it a pretty hard slog right now. There should be magic-dust, scintillations of fairy light, music, but all I can see for the immediate future are dust-balls, slow decline, and a bleak outlook. You?re the only one truly capable of changing our destiny right now; for all our sakes, find that learning-curve, hit it ? and soon. Please.

 - Glynis Wright

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