Well-run Albion about to hit a rough tide

Ralph Ellis is full of admiration for well-run West Bromwich Albion, but with some poor results recently and a long winter ahead, the second half of the season might not be as successful for the Baggies...

It's about this time of year that the reality of the Premier League begins to be confirmed. Ultimately you get what you pay for.

 

It's why Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea - the three teams with the most resources - are occupying the top three places in the division. And more particularly it is why West Bromwich Albion's exciting early season run is beginning to peter out.

 

The Baggies - traditionally the ultimate yo-yo team - have become the shining example of how to build a club within its own resources. They are the model that the principles of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations are built on, a club that lives within its means, doesn't get itself into debt chasing unrealistic ambitions, is happy to get relegated then return to the top division rather than overspend on trying to stay there in the first place.

 

They have got where they are thanks to the clever recruitment work of Dan Ashworth, shortly to be taken away from them to start a new job with the FA, and the application of successive managers to mould a decent group of players into an effective team.

 

Roberto Di Matteo started it when he had the strongest squad in the Championship and took them up playing good football, then earned enough points off the back of the confidence he had generated to get a foothold in the Premier League. Roy Hodgson carried it on, bringing disciplined organisation to the defending. And this season Steve Clarke has simply not tried to mend something that wasn't broken.

 

It's all taken Albion to their best start of the Premier League era, and they currently sit proudly in sixth place after yesterday's 0-0 draw with West Ham. They are 1.53 for a top 10 finish - but the signs are, sadly, that it is time to lay that one while you can.

 

Hammers boss Sam Allardyce made his point yesterday about needing a stronger squad by filling only six of the seven places on his subs bench. It was a less than subtle hint by Big Sam that he wants cash to spend in January.

 

Clarke could have tried some similar subterfuge, but he is a realist. He admitted before the game that he doesn't expect to add to his squad in the window and he knows that won't change. He said he wasn't bothered, that he thought his squad was already good enough. But you suspect that was just because he knows that the policies on such things are written down in stone from above. At some clubs there would be a temptation to spend to build on the bright start. At The Hawthorns it makes no difference to the broad strategy.

 

Some 27 points already mean that Albion won't get relegated. But what they won't do, either, is kick on. Just one point from the last four games is the sign that the early season momentum has stalled and reality is taking hold again. And with two of their best three outfield players - Youssuf Mulumbu and Peter Odemwingie - about to disappear to the African Cup of Nations the squad will be exposed.

 

Albion will remain a model of how to run a club well, and will keep on trying to build each season. But reality is taking hold in the middle of the winter. You get what you pay for, and a budget that's in the bottom half of the Premier League will produce a team that ends there.

 

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