Megson hits back

19 September 2001

We here at BOING have lost count of the number of times that someone's been asked a relatively innocuous question and given a straight answer, only to read the papers and find out that they've just "hit out" at, "launched a scathing attack" on, or "blasted" someone. But Albion manager Gary Megson's comments in the programme notes for last night's game against Preston justify all those descriptions and more.

You may recall a certain Dutch midfielder saying recently in the press how the dressing room was hell under Megson and how he didn't even give him the satisfaction of telling him his contract would not be renewed? We didn't take a great deal of notice of the story here, because it really sounded like sour grapes from a player who was bitter at no longer being required by his club, and the evidence of a healthy dressing room atmosphere was pretty obvious for all to see.

At the time, Megson replied by saying something along the lines of if Sneekes had come to see him in person, he'd have told him that he'd be prepared to have him back on week to week terms until he got fixed up with another club? And we thought little more about it, assuming that to be the end of the issue.

Not so, however! Megson's displeasure with his former player was spelt out in his comments in the programme:

"You may have seen an article by Richard Sneekes in the last week or so, and most of it I totally and utterly refute. He said the atmosphere in the dressing room was awful, that was something that would only be apparent to him because it was only ever awful when he was around because of the attitude he had."

"Richard was one of the two players who, when on my first day as manager of West Brom I asked the players to do a fifteen minute run, refused to do it. Once he did that it was just a matter of time. In my view, fifteen minutes running for £5,000 a week isn't an awful lot to ask any professional. Derek McInnes' comments live on Radio WM last week made it clear that the spirit within the squad is excellent, and that was underlined again by the performance at Watford on Sunday."

And Sneekes is not the only one to incur Megson's wrath in the last few weeks, as his comments regarding the handling of the injury to Jason Roberts suggest. Fortunately the main target of his anger is not Jason himself, but his "advisors" - including his uncle and Albion legend Cyrille Regis:

"You will also have read comments in the local press that are attributed to Jason Roberts' advisor and I'd like to clear up one or two things. I thought the allegations made against me regarding putting Jason's career at risk were a total disgrace and absolutely wrong, and I'll tell you how it came about that Jason played against Manchester City."

"It was suggested that Jason had only done two days training when the truth was he'd been training for a month with Nick Worth, running, doing weights, twisting and turning. He'd done a weeks' training before the game and in that week, Jason was asked at least five times if he felt confident to play and each time he replied that yes he did."

"The Friday before the game, before I named the team, I asked Jason if he was fit to play, and he replied "Sweet." So he was always confident of playing, the player always has the final decision at this club on whether he plays and that was the case with Jason Roberts as it was with Derek McInnes when I wouldn't let him play in the final play-of [sic] game and as it was with Michael Appleton when I wouldn't let him play against Crewe, even though both were borderline. I think that is the best example of my attitude towards the return to the side of injured players."

"The press cuttings and quotes from Jason's agent have been sent to the League Managers Association, the Professional Football Association and the Football Association, and we'll see if they deal with an agent in the same manner that they would deal with a player or manager making those comments."

"Jason has now decided with the advice of his advisors, that he will have his leg put in plaster and I'm led to believe he'll be out for around 12 weeks. This is not the course of action that the football club, or our surgeon, or our physio deems the right thing, but we are beholden to the individual and have to accept that decision."

Anyone care to speculate on the chances of any action being taken...?

Previous Stories:

  18 September 2001:  Baggies swoop for midfielder?

  13 September 2001:  Moore to sign!

  11 September 2001:  The Moore saga ends

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