Who will step up to save Villa? december 2015
Birmingham City
The best youth academy in the region? walsall: What will life be like after Dean Smith? What does it mean to support Coventry City? A change of expectation at Molineux Is Pulis the man to take albion forward?
editor’s contentsnotes Welcome to the first-ever issue of Centre Circle Magazine. If you support a team from the West Midlands, then over the coming months and seasons, we want this to be become your first port of call to read and debate opinions with like-minded fans. Every issue, we will be providing space to supporters like you to get your opinions published and help focus more attention onto this great region of ours. You don’t have to live in the West Midlands though, as long as you support Villa, Blues, Coventry, Walsall, West Brom or Wolves then you’re welcome! We hope that soon, content will develop into longform feature articles about particular topics affecting the West Midlands clubs, which will complement the shorter opinion pieces you will see at the moment. We also have a fan interview for you to read, as well as a round up of Tweets by fans talking about the issues facing your club. You can follow us through our social media channels by clicking the logos on the bottom-right and, if you are reading this and would like to contribute an article or advertise your business in a future issue, our email address is at the top-right. We also appreciate any feedback you have that could help us make the magazine better, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with your ideas, we want to hear from you. We really hope you enjoy this issue, and will help support us simply by reading an article or following and/or liking us. We are a young business but are passionate about giving the fans in the West Midlands a better voice. Speak to you soon. Craig Suffolk, Editor - Centre Circle Magazine
Centre Circle Magazine
Email address: centrecirclemag@gmail. com Contributors: Lisa Smith Bradley Jolly James Harding Luke Davis Stuart Court Sam Gayton Richard Kendrick Dan Gilbert Rob Jones Alex Newey Taran Dhamrait Photographs: All photos have been provided by the Press Association. All photos have been reproduced under licence. For more information, please visit www.paimages. co.uk Design: This magazine has been designed by MG Design in Birmingham. For more information, please visit the back page to see their details.
contents
aston villa pages 4-5
West Brom Pages 17-18
birmingham city pages 6-9
wolves pages 19-22
coventry pages 10-12
Top tweets page 23
walsall pages 13-16
fan Interview page 24
next issue Page 25
Pages 2&3
Aston Villa Post-Benteke: Who can be Villa’s new saviour? By Lisa Smith We are “Villa til we die” - ask any follower of the claret and blue army and they will tell you that is our mantra. But even the most diehard fan has had their loyalty severely tested over the last five seasons. Take out the incredible joy of the FA SemiFinal (yes let’s pretend the final never happened) and there has been very little to cheer, much less anything to suggest future generations will fall so deeply in love with the club as we all have done. With no buyer in sight to save us with a huge cash injection for new players, and a manager who is previously untried at the highest level, we are all looking to our team to save us. We are all looking to that player who can galvanise us and dig out the results we need if we are to maintain our status as an ever-present in the Premier League. The question is, is there a player in our midst who can do that? My money would have always been on Gabby, after all he is total Villa and has been our saviour in the past. But he has struggled of late with injury and his pace is no longer enough to guarantee us a victory. Could it be our skipper Micah Richards? He has certainly spoken up recently in a bid to gee up his team-mates and has found the back of the net. But he is still finding his feet in a side which many fans feel would better suit him at right back. Ideally our future would be in the hands of Jack Grealish but at 20 is it fair to heap such pressure on young shoulders? True he’s one
“Grealish has a heart as big as his smile and will find his way. He has had to learn that letting his hair down is not what the fans expect of him” of our own. A home grown talent who spent his days as a youngster playing in the academy then joining his dad in the crowd watching his claret and blue heroes. His rise to first team stardom is a fairy tale but like any great story it has has its share of twists and turns. As the golden boy of the club he has been subjected to pressures and expectations like no other and that has come with press intrusion which is only likely to escalate the minute he pulls on that England jersey. Grealish has a heart as big as his smile and will find his way. He has had to learn that letting his hair down on a weekend having put a shift in on the pitch is not what fans expect of him. He has also had to cope with the loss of Christian Benteke and that has probably had a bigger impact on his own style of play than most fans give him credit for.
Centre Circle Magazine
port. We still get decent gates despite the malaise and we still have amongst the best travelling support in the country. We all deserve better but we are in this together and believe it or not the team are with us too. Villa face an uphill battle now to stay in the Premier League and cannot even rely upon the clubs around them for their survival as they have in previous years. Today fans are not so much “Villa til we die” as “Villa till the club dies” - the club is on the edge of a dangerous precipice and no matter how much we all will it to cling on we have to face facts that we are not too big to go down. In a team where there are fewer big characters and experienced names than ever before we must back our young midfielder whilst giving him room to grow.
Long-sufering Villans
True, time is against us but it is crucial fans don’t criticise or judge too harshly but instead continue their amazing unstinting sup-
And so we all look for that one super hero who can save us - claw us back from the brink and secure our future in the top flight. I wonder what Superman is doing at the weekend? Let’s hope his hair is slicked back, his socks are down and his mind is on the massive task ahead.
Pages 4&5
Birmingham City Rowett looks to young stars to end barren home run
“Birmingham may have a fight on their hands to keep hold of Gray with the January transfer window approaching and a host of clubs as reputable as Bayern Munich rumoured to be interested in his services” By Luke Davis Viv Solomon-Otabor is the latest of Birmingham City’s academy stars to break into the first team. Born in London to Nigerian parents, Viv Solomon-Otabor was a member of the Crystal Palace academy before taking up a scholarship with Birmingham. In February 2014, he joined Conference North side Oxford City on loan until the end of the season where he made 12 appearances, scoring once as they were relegated. He returned to Birmingham at the end of the season and signed his first professional contract in June 2014. Solomon-Otabor impressed in pre-season and Gary Rowett had high praise for the youngster. Rowett told the Birmingham Mail, “Last
season he showed flashes, this season he has roasted first team defenders in training. He is probably the quickest player we have got in our squad, he is a big powerful boy as well. He has actually shown some real quality in the Under 21 games and in training, he has finished with his left foot and right foot. Without putting too much pressure on him I think he could be a huge player for us in the coming months and years.” He follows in the footsteps of Demarai Gray, who has established himself as a key player in Gary Rowett’s side. Solomon-Otabor made his debut as a second half substitute in Birmingham’s 2-0 win over Gillingham in the Capital One Cup and scored his first Blues goal during the emphatic 5-2 win at Fulham.
Centre Circle Magazine
There has never been a better time for youngsters to make the step up at Blues with the ongoing ownership scandal with Carson Yeung doing his very best to drag the club down with him. The lack of transfer kitty available has led to the Blues becoming ever reliant on their academy products. Since Yeung’s arrest in 2011, the likes of Nathan Redmond, Jack Butland, Jordon Mutch and Demarai Gray have all become first team regulars after coming through the academy. Reece Brown, Koby Arthur and Mitch Hancox have also had stints in the side. But the current highlight is certainly 19 year- old talent Demarai Gray. Birmingham-born Gray was handed his first team debut as a late substitute during a 4-0 win over Milwall in October 2013 and made his first start in a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Charlton. It took Gray until April 2014 to score his first senior goal as Blackburn won 4-1 at St. Andrews. Gray eventually established himself as a first-team regular as a part of Gary Rowett’s side who finished tenth last season. The highlight so far for Demarai Gray must be the first-half hat-trick in the 6-1 demolition of Reading last December. Gray has since been called up numerous times for England’s U20’s and more recently was an unused substitute in a U21 qualifier. Having signed a new 3-year contract in the summer containing a release clause rumoured to be around the £4million mark, Birmingham may have a fight on their hands to keep hold of Gray with the January transfer window approaching and a host of clubs as reputable as Bayern Munich rumoured to be interested in his services. Gray has just the one goal this campaign, scoring the opening goal in the 2-0 win at Leeds, which has resulted in some supporters being frustrated at his lack of final product but Gray is still only 19 and will develop with time.
as a 17 yearold under Lee Clark’s management but has only made a handful of appearances under Gary Rowett, who suggests that Brown’s attitude has not been professional enough to stake a claim in the first team. Rowett told BBC WM listeners, “I don’t think I am out of turn in saying this because I have said it to Browny on a number of occasions some of the other things he has to do better. Little things like some of the weights sessions in the gym he has turned up late a couple of times, little things like that. Maybe sometimes he needs to understand what it takes to be a top professional.” Brown made his first appearance of the season, coming on as a substitute as Blues lost at home yet again, this time against Charlton. Rowett will be looking at the likes of Gray, Solomon-Otabor and Brown to add some attacking impetus to break Birmingham’s rotten home form. Blues have won just one of their last seven home games, failing to score in 6 of the previous 7 games. With star striker Clayton Donaldson now sidelined for at least a month, manager Gary Rowett faces a headache as to how he gets his side scoring again. Danish striker Nicolai Brock-Madsen and loan recruit James Vaughan are vying to replace Donaldson in the starting eleven and have big boots to fill as Rowett is determined to stick with a lone striker which has bought him so much success so far. Whatever Gary Rowett does do, he knows he must make St. Andrews a fortress again if Blues are to compete for a prestigious play- off place.
Perhaps the most frustrating youngster for Blues fans is Reece Brown. The St. Andrews faithful watched Brown dominate games
Pages 6&7
Birmingham City Turbocharged turnaround By Bradley Jolly PAUL Greenhill left St Andrew’s upset, forlorn and frustrated. His shoulders slumped, his hands in pockets and his face frowned. Like more than 12,000 other Birmingham City fans, the 33-year-old had just witnessed Bournemouth thump their side in an embarrassing 8-0 hammering. Blues were managerless that day, October 25 last year. The humiliation was their record home defeat. They were in the Championship’s relegation zone and fans were very worried. But just weeks later Sam Hewitt left St Andrew’s delighted, euphoric and proud. He laughed, he smiled, he joked. He joined more than 13,000 other Bluenoses to watch their team trounce Reading 6-1. By then Birmingham had a new boss. Gary Rowett had dramatically changed the club’s fortunes and propelled his side from 23rd to 15th in the table. And since then, Rowett has transformed the club he played for 86 times. Now City lie 8th. The stark turnaround has been staggering. In relatively such a short space of time, Rowett has turned a side staring relegation to the third tier of the national game in the face to challengers for the playoffs. As a result, the fans’ gloomy pessimism has slowly withered away and has been replaced by a bright shade of optimism and hope. Myriad of colour has been splashed across a rather dull, black-and-white picture.
shipped a staggering 28 goals in 14 games. Rowett arrived and tightened things up. In fact, Blues only conceded an average of 1.12 goals in the league after the messiah took the job. Rowett brought in Michael Morrison on loan during his first week in charge and signed him permanently in the summer from Charlton. He has been a revelation. He has been the cornerstone of the backline, so strong and powerful. Former Burton boss Rowett has also instilled a calming, upbeat atmosphere in the Birmingham dressing room, a changing room that has faced years of instability and angst under the turbulent ownership of Carson Yeung. Moreover, Rowett has helped Birmingham play with more confidence. He’s taken the side, thrown its shackles off and let it go. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But there were far too many restraints under Lee Clark. Blues fans aren’t daft. They know Rowett loves their side — he played for them for two years and is from down the road in Bromsgrove. They also know he is a highly ambitious manager. They know Rowett has bigger and greater things on his mind and they believe he undoubtedly will achieve them. But for now, they are reveling in the wonders the coach has produced. Most supporters will be happy with a mid-table finish this season but, as we approach the turn of the year, they challenge the playoff pack. Supporters will have consistency on their Christmas list this year…
Many supporters feel the improvement can be attributed to a mean defence. Before Rowett came in last season, Birmingham
Centre Circle Magazine
Donaldson, Droughts and December By James Harding
has served us so well up to this point.
Tuesday 20th October – Blues come away from the Macron with a hard fought 1-0 victory, which sees us go 2nd in the table.
Much has been made of the lack of impact Nicolai Brock-Madsen has made so far, but for me this comes down to both game time and the team playing well as a whole first – truly world-class players will magic up a moment of inspiration when their team is having an off-day, but based on what we’ve seen of him so far he appears to be more a workhorse who’s going to play a part in goals as opposed to scoring 15-20 a season himself.
Here we stand at the mid-December point, miraculously still well within touching distance of the play-offs after a rather deflating November and start of December – 5 losses from the last 7 isn’t the prettiest of statistics. Under the management of Rowett, whenever we appear to have hit a rocky spell I’ve subscribed to the thought that we need to pull any kind of result out of the bag in order to re-stabilise our season, with the bore draw vs Blackburn and the follow up victory away at Fulham appearing to do just that. In the fixtures since our attacking masterclass at Craven Cottage however, we appear to have regressed back to the dark days of home games under Lee Clark, with groanenduring performances against lower-table sides Charlton & Huddersfield. Having been at the Charlton game, I have to say I thought we were more unfortunate rather than completely undeserving of anything, however our lack of cutting edge ultimately cost us, on another day I feel we may well have nicked a point or all three. I was unable to attend the Huddersfield game, but judging from the reports and reviews of those in attendance it seemed that the attempted change of system from Rowett caused confusion and an un-natural balance to the side – with my biggest gripe being the decision to play Jon Toral, arguably our most creative player on the ball, out wide on the right. Justifiably a lot has been made of the Donaldson injury lay-off, but I don’t think a consequence of this should be to abandon the 4-5-1 (or 4-4-1-1, whichever way you want to view it) system that Rowett instilled and
It’s mentioned too often for my liking how thin our squad is, but this isn’t something I necessarily see as a problem when it comes to being an attacking force – Viv, Gray, Toral, Maghoma, Gleeson, Cotterill (when fit) are all capable of chipping in from midfield (IF played in their natural positions), whilst we also have the much hyped but lesser-seen Reece Brown getting closer to the first-team with each passing week. It’s up to these guys to take the pressure off the shoulders of the lone striker – be it a fit Donaldson, Brock or James Vaughn. So sure, there’s a few teething problems currently, and December looks like a decidedly tricky month in terms of fixtures – our records away at Middlesbrough and Preston aren’t the best, but if there was ever a time to change this, it’s now. Let’s hope Rowett can rally the squad through the busy period and we can stay within the busy bunch vying for the play-offs, as I feel with a few decent additions (be it or loan or via the change jar) in January could put us in with a great shout come the end of the season; not bad for a team marked down as relegation candidates at the start of the season.
Pages 8&9
Coventry City I was a teenage Man United Fan By Sam Gayton Living in a tiny village in central England isn’t the best place to be when it comes to choosing a football team. I’m from an area smackbang in the middle of the Midlands: close to Leicester, close to Birmingham, close to Coventry. Yet I had no strong local influence for choosing my football team during my childhood. Kids at my school were a microcosm for the wider phenomenon that is glory-hunting. Most were Man United fans, loved Liverpool, or knew Arsenal’s line-up off by heart. I’m pretty sure there was even a Leeds fan in the mix as well. My dad supports Spurs despite living his whole life in the same Midlands village that I grew up in. As his father wasn’t that into foot-
“It was my first football match, and I was nine years old. I remember it being loud and cold.The pitch was unlike anything I had seen on TV, bright, crisp and clear. It was brilliant” Old Coventry
ball, the business of helping him decide on his football team fell to my dad’s grandad – a Spurs fan from Luton. Dad tried his best to convince me and my brother that supporting Tottenham was the natural thing for us to do - there are pictures of us dressed in the home shirt circa ’95 which must have been a desperate last attempt to convince us they were a goer. It was around this time that I uttered the famous words that Dad is fond of bringing up whenever football allegiances are mentioned: ‘Dad… Do I have to be a Spurs fan?’ His dreams shattered, he could only answer with, ‘Of course not son. But just remember whoever you pick, you never change your football team.’ So along with most of the children between seven and eight in England at the time, I decided my footballing relationship would be with Manchester United, the best team in England. This sacred vow I had undertaken was to wed me to them, for better or worse (it was usually better), for the rest of my life. I thought I was ready for it. I never went to see United. It didn’t really occur to me that if you were a fan you should want to. I had my replica kit, I watched them on telly, and I knew the names of the players; that was all I needed. I was gutted when they lost, and ecstatic when they won. I told myself I was a real fan. My comfortable, little red world was about to be disrupted, however. In 2001, Dad, my brother and I took a trip to Highfield Road to see Coventry City play Arsenal. It was my first football match, and I was nine years old. I remember it being loud and cold. The pitch was unlike anything I had seen on TV: bright, crisp, and clear. Dennis Bergkamp scored a header. It was brilliant.
Centre Circle Magazine
Over the next few years I went to see Coventry play a lot more. Cheap League Cup nights, first game of the season specials, and my uncle getting cheap tickets from work: it all conspired to get me down to Highfield Road, and later the Ricoh, to watch the Sky Blues. I was enjoying supporting United – success followed success, and bragging rights were usually mine amongst my Liverpool and Arsenal supporting schoolmates. But my eyes began to wander when it came to checking the results at five p.m. If I hadn’t been watching Soccer Saturday or Final Score, I’d scroll past the Premier League scores on Ceefax and go straight to the Championship results. If United had lost, and Coventry had won, I’d feel great. If Coventry had lost, and United had won, I’d get that sinking feeling you get in your stomach after bad news. Surely that wasn’t meant to happen? I was a United fan, but another team was contributing to my footballing happiness. A harmless flirtation was blossoming into something more solid, more real. Dad’s words were playing on my mind during this time: ‘You never change your football team’. So I continued going through the motions with United. It was a bond that had lost its spark, but I didn’t have the heart to end it. I carried on my illicit affair with Coventry. I bought their shirts, I went to watch them, and I always checked for their score first. In August of 2010, my girlfriend at the time bought us tickets to go and see United at Old Trafford. I knew that this was make-or-break. United won 3-0 against a dismal West Ham side. It was fun, but it made up my mind. The first United match I saw live was my last as a ‘fan’. I started university that September. Meeting and greeting all of these new people led to the inevitable question: ‘Who do you support?’
Not old (or new) Coventry
No prizes at this point for guessing which team I answered with. Coventry dropped down into League One at the end of the 2011/2012 season. United just missed out on the Premier League title, finishing second. It was a bit of a contrast. I was devastated when Coventry were relegated. It felt awful. However, I still knew I had done the right thing. Supporting a football team is a lot like a marriage – you go through your ups and downs, but you always want to try and make it work. Like supporting a football team, you don’t go into a marriage with anything less than good intentions. Sometimes though, you just weren’t right together in the first place. That’s what happened with my long-distance relationship with United. It took a team a lot closer to home to help me realise what being a fan was all about. As for me and the Sky Blues, there are ups and downs (more downs than ups it has to be said), but I’m a hell of a lot happier as a local Coventry fan than I ever was as an absent United one. If that isn’t an exception to change your football team, I don’t know what is.
Pages 10&11
Coventry City Mowbray magic in full effect By Stuart Court With the usually busy Christmas period coming up the City squad are bristling with confidence as they look to step on again and reclaim top spot before the Calender switches to 2016. The main protagonist behind all of this so far- Tony Mowbray. Mowbray was - somewhat surprisingly - appointed in the spring and charged with keeping the side full of loans and little confidence away from dropping down to the 4th tier for for the first time in half a century. In early May 1,300 or so of us crammed into a old fashioned terrace at Crawley with a win likely needed to stay up. A hour later and the club on the verge of the dreaded drop as Crawley took the lead. City were one goal from relegation and it looked bleak and all the strides made in a brief time with Mowbray would fall off. A turnaround sprung by the mercurial talent of 18 year old James Maddison saw City survive thanks to goals from Marcus Tudgay and Maddison himself. Relief was palpable. No need for celebrating that was Mowbray message. Just seven months on and Mowbray has one of the most exciting squads in recent Club history playing with verve and confidence. Splashed with those ever present loans and few of our own gems. Loanees including Adam Armstrong, Jacob Murphy, Ryan Kent and somewhat unbelievably Joe Cole have seen those same people flock to games with excitement at what they are about to witness and not a morbid desire to peek at a wreckage. The job Mowbray has done this far can not be undersold. His contacts have bought him heralded youth prospects from big clubs and saw a England international ask to come and join in the fun. With Maddison back in the next week this could be a Christmas period to savour for City fans as Mowbray and his magic pushes the City onto towards their 1st promotion since 1967. And I am along for the ride.
Centre Circle Magazine
Walsall Life after Ginger Mourinho By Rob Jones Dean Smith’s recent move to Brentford may have marked a frustrating end to his Walsall tenure for Walsall fans, but rarely has the hot seat at the Banks’s stadium been such hot property. Rob Jones explains why Walsall fans still have plenty to be optimistic about despite losing English football’s fourth longest The man himself serving manager: It would be fair to say Dean Smith’s five years in charge of Walsall had their ups and downs. Survival in League One in 2011 was arguably as big an achievement as the club’s first every trip to Wembley back in March, yet such jubilation didn’t come without times of despair. A 16 match winless run in 2012 and similar 10 match streak which ultimately saw hopes of a top six finish evaporate in 2014, certainly had many Walsall fans questioning whether mid-table mediocrity might be Smith’s limit. Patchy runs of form aside, credit has to be given to the way Smith changed the ethos of a club which had found any form of identity hard to come by under his predecessors. The laboured and slow football played under Chris Hutchings was gradually evolved into a club blueprint based around possession, pace, and technical ability. The evolution may have taken its time, but the first half of this season suggests that the blueprint may have finally bedded itself in at
first team level. Style has been matched with substance by a side boasting goals and assists from all over the pitch, and the kind of maturity needed to grind out results as well as cruise to them. Whoever is next to take the helm at the Banks’s will inherit a team no longer desperately reliant on Tom Bradshaw’s goals alone; something that couldn’t have been said 12 months ago. In Romaine Sawyers, the team boasts one of the league’s most creative playmakers, while Jason Demetriou and Rico Henry give the new manager two fullbacks perfectly capable of making a real difference in the final third. Not only that, but with James O’Connor and Adam Chambers in the spine of the team, pace and flair are balanced with experience and guile. The challenge for the club’s board is making sure that the blueprint introduced by Dean Smith is taken on to the next level. Any new manager must be capable of developing what is a relatively young squad and keeping it playing the kind of high-energy, attacking football the Banks’s faithful have bought into, and with one of the league’s lowest budgets, players recruited must also have age and the potential to improve on their side. The club’s hierarchy may be used to recruiting managers based on their ability to drag a club out of the mire but here they have a rare opportunity to bring someone in who can build from a position of real strength. Dean Smith deserves to be remembered as a manager who put the long term progression of the club first, but his departure should be viewed as an exciting opportunity to go one better and turn the building blocks into something special.
Pages 12&13
Walsall Super Saddlers start brings shock as long-serving Dean Smith departs By Dan Gilbert When people mention West Midlands football clubs, Walsall hardly get a mention… but this season they have been the side to watch and the side to bring a bit of footballing pride back to the area as it seems that last season’s heroics of reaching Wembley for the first time has only galvanised a young Walsall squad to go onto bigger and better things. The Saddlers sit third in the league after 20 games having scored 35 goals with an impressive 15 different scorers, as well of course, the small matter of Jose Mourinho bringing his Premier League champions, Chelsea, to a packed out Banks’s Stadium in the League Cup as a reward for beating Championship sides Nottingham Forest and Brighton, a result which is still Brighton’s only defeat, it’s certainly been a first half of the season to remember for the Walsall faithful. Nobody would have expected it though, especially after a disappointing opening day draw against Oldham Athletic, a game which only dampened the excitement of the new season. However, it was to be just a slight blip in a super start as Walsall went on to get impressive wins over the likes of newly promoted Southend United, Coventry City and an away day hammering of Blackpool. Since then, the club have looked the part and proven that they can be a force at the right end of the league with further impressive wins over the likes of high-flying Burton Albion and Gillingham, a game in which the Saddlers came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in the dying seconds. It’s just not the Walsall way, and you get a sense some are beginning to dream…
The way the team have been playing has been nothing short of superb, quick attacking play, aided by the excellent Jason Demetriou and Rico Henry running down the wings giving support to the likes of Milan Lalkovic, Anthony Forde and Keiron Morris, causing problems for many sides this season. An ever-improving Neil Etheridge between the sticks, a sturdy defence and robust midfield of Adam Chambers, Sam Mantom and Man City loanee George Evans who has hit the ground running since he joined the club, adding that bit of quality that you’d expect from a young lad surrounded by bags of world class talent back in Manchester. The stand out performer this season though, is Romaine Sawyers. The former West Brom youth player has linked much of the midfield and attacking play, allowing the likes of last season’s top scorer Tom Bradshaw, and rejuvenated Lalkovic to be the goal getters. This doesn’t mean that Sawyers himself has been goal-shy though. Anything but. Given the task of getting more goals by Dean Smith and his coaching staff in the Summer, Sawyers has stepped up to the task accordingly and at one point looked like completing a list of his own goals of the season, as the St Kitts & Nevis star man hit strike after strike from outside of the box, nestling into the top corner and although the goals have dried up slightly in recent weeks as teams begin to try to deal with him, class is permanent, as he shows week in week out with his deftly touches and excellent passing ability and vision, which worryingly for Saddlers fans, certainly wouldn’t look out of place in the Championship. I say ‘worryingly’ as the man himself is out of contract in the summer and there has been
Centre Circle Magazine
nothing to suggest that he is even close to signing a new deal. As is too often the way with smaller clubs doing well, suitors will be circling around the Banks’s Stadium as players such as Romaine Sawyers, Tom Bradshaw and Rico Henry begin to make a name for themselves, the latter looking to be one of, if not the very best youth products to come out of the club and although he only turned eighteen in the Summer, the pacey left sided player is already linked with a host of Premier League giants including Manchester United, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool. Players aren’t the only ones looked at when a club does well though, which brings us nicely – or rather sadly – onto Dean Smith’s move to the capital as he joined Brentford just days ago, taking assistant manager Richard O’Kelly along with him. A sad day for the club as it was just starting to look like the club were just beginning to reap the rewards of almost five years of hard work and ups and downs. Is the lure of the Brentford job really that strong for a man who had finally moulded a team capable of challenging for promotion? Was it a move that the man who took Walsall to Wembley deserved or was it simply a slap in the face to the club who had stuck by him during some sticky spells? One thing is for sure, he won’t get the time to adjust things at Brentford as he did at Walsall, although in their defence, they don’t need to alter things that much. With that said, would Dean Smith even need the time? The manager, now approaching his fifth year as a manager looks to have come on leaps and bounds since he first stepped into the Saddlers dugout. This season in particular really does show how much he has come on and learnt from past mistakes and has hardly put a foot wrong, similar form with Brentford could see his new side gate crash the Championship play-off places.
Saddlers to keep themselves in the thick of it as the promotion race hots up at the midway point, the entire club has to move quickly and adjust to life after Smith. He had become a part of the furniture at the Banks’s and obviously played a vitally important role in the ‘feel good’ atmosphere which was clearly so important at the club, and certainly played a part in the players good form, each and every one of them played for Smith and is which is difficult to replace at any club, no matter who you bring in as a replacement. Saying that though, the noises coming from the players ahead of the short trip to Shrewsbury just a day after the shock departure of their boss were one of togetherness and unity, and they got off to the perfect start, putting a smile back onto the faces of the Saddlers faithful with an excellent 3-1 win after coming from behind, a win which took the Saddlers to the brink of the automatic spots once again. Of course, not only do the club face the task of keeping within touching distance of the automatic promotion spots whilst searching for a new manager to carry on Smith’s hard work, they must fend off interest for their hottest property as the January transfer window gets ever closer. It’ll be a nervous month for fans as rumours already begin to circulate as it’s widely expected that Dean Smith may attempt to raid his former-club, something that certainly would not sit comfortably with the fans at the Banks’s… So what does the second half of the season bring? Is it finally Walsall’s time to challenge for promotion back to the Championship or will they feel the effect of the loss of Dean Smith? Only time will tell…
So what have Walsall got to do now? For the
Pages 14&15
Walsall It’s the hope that kills you By Richard Kendrick When I started this article, my intention was to look at similarities between the season so far and successful promotion seasons of past; partly to look at the trends and partly to give myself reassurance that promotion this year is actually feasible. I started the season believing we had no chance of making the playoffs but as each week passes, belief has cautiously built. Walsall fans are a self-effacing lot and as the saying goes, it’s the hope that kills you. This sense of increasing hope may explain the mood felt after the bombshell of Dean Smith leaving. The news seemingly came out of nowhere, the head of the family walking out just when everything had clicked into place. Understandable if it happened in the summer, but now? What will happen now? Will the players lose focus? Will we even have our best players in January, or is everyone about to jump ship? The pessimistic side of me had surfaced, but the first game after the manager’s departure changed all that. The spirit in the camp that night was fantastic, the kind of defiance that we showed throughout Ray Graydon’s first promotion season of 1998/99. That year, as we clocked up each win and as each pundit spoke about how we couldn’t possibly sustain a challenge, a quiet resolve began to grow in me. Fortunately, the players had this resolve from day one and their resoluteness was the deciding factor in their success.
ahead of the vastly bigger budgets of Manchester City, Preston and Stoke. Another incredibly pleasing thing about this current season has been the quality of football being played. It has been better than any I can remember in 32 years of watching Walsall and the most entertaining since the promotion winning season of 2000/01. After 20 games that year, we found ourselves on 41 points and were top of the table. That year, we finished 4th with 81 points and went onto one of our greatest ever days. Some striking similarities between all three, but comparisons aside there is one crucial, marked difference between this season and the others. This time we find ourselves at a crossroads; the management team gone and could potentially lose our best players in January if our worst fears are realised. When you reach a crossroads such as this, you need two key traits to make sure you prevail on your quest; to show quality in what you do and have the strength of character to overcome the odds. These are characteristics that we have shown before and have today. Whether our form continues is down to the players and staff; all the fans can do is hope. 98/99’s promotion rivals
Comparing the two seasons’ records, they are remarkably similar. This season after 20 games, we find ourselves on 39 points and are 3rd in the table, an identical record and placing to the same point of the ‘98/99 season. We finished 2nd that year with 87 points,
Centre Circle Magazine
West Brom Is Pulis the man to take us forward? By Anonymous Played 39. Won 15, drawn 10, lost 14. According to Soccerbase.com, that is Tony Pulis’ record at West Brom as of 9th December. There seems to be an increasing amount of discontent amongst some supporters over his style of play here. Much of what people think seems to be tied in with how they see the club – should we take a safety-first approach this season because of the increase in TV revenue to ensure we stay in the league? Or should we make more effort to return to the attractive style of play that a lot of the last few years have been built around? Pulis himself might argue that this style is the one that’s most suited to the current squad. At Palace the turnaround he oversaw was based on having quick, direct wingers play a counter-attacking game, whilst also being complemented with skilful, creative types like Jason Puncheon. So we know that he can coach sides into playing a relatively attractive brand of football. At Albion, the only players he has available to him who have the capability to score goals regularly are Saido Berahino and Salomon Rondon. Of those, Rondon has shown promise but is still settling into the league and Berahino looks as if he’s waiting to see which of the top 6 clubs, if any, will come calling in January. The club’s transfer policy, and Jer-
emy Peace’s financial management might be another mitigating factor. It’s no secret that Pulis wanted to strengthen the squad in the summer. The smart money seemed on the theory that the Berahino money would have gone towards restructuring the squad. When the rebuild didn’t happen, Pulis was once again stuck with a number of players who haven’t exactly been regular picks in his side. Signing loan players seems to be one particular area where the club is actually quite wasteful, with a number of temporary moves not making any difference to the side over the past few seasons. Serge Gnabry is the latest one who can be added to this list, and another player based in the West Midlands can also provide another example – Scott Sinclair. Personally, I prefer us being a solid Premier League team rather than a side that yo-yos between the first and second divisions playing attractive football. I understand the arguments behind why fans feel that they deserve to be entertained, especially when you consider the price of following the team home and away. For me though, if we consolidate in the Premier League, we have a better chance of progressing upwards from there. You only need to look at the calibre of the former Premier League sides now in the Championship – the likes of Middlesbrough, Derby, Nottingham Forest and Leeds to know that it’s especially tough to get out of these days. At the end of the day I want to see Albion’s stature continue to improve, and I think we have the best chance of doing that if we start in midtable obscurity in the Premier League! That brings me back to my opinion of Pulis. I don’t believe that there’s any way Albion can get worse under his management – he gives us a virtual guarantee of staying in the league every season. I think it would be silly and a little naïve for a club like ours, who knows yo-
Pages 16&17
West Brom yoing so much better than a lot of other clubs, to turn our noses up at becoming an established Premier League club, if we aren’t already. I think we should beware the example of clubs like Charlton, who thought they’d outgrown Alan Curbishley, and look where that got them! It’s not like it’s all been bad either. That barnstorming run of games last season before Arsenal on the last day saw us beat Pulis’ old club Palace, get a point at Anfield and wins over Chelsea at home and Man United at Old Trafford. I never thought I’d see an Albion side go on a run like that after witnessing some of our games in the pre-Premier League era! Even this season, just over 3 weeks ago we were witnessing a brilliant win over Arsenal and we’ve been victorious over Villa this season too, hope accelerating their demise into the Championship. I understand that it hasn’t all been perfect, we regularly concede possession to teams which doesn’t make our job any easier, and away from home especially, we can look as if we have almost no attacking intent which is sometimes frustrating. Ultimately though, as I said earlier, I want Albion to be successful, as we all do, and I’m willing to back a manager who’s style of play can be backed up with results. Pulis is one of those managers. I’m happy to forego a little bit of entertainment if I see Albion winning games, and if I can sit in my seat comfortably every March and April because we don’t need to be worried about the relegation scrap and can look down at it from our, nice, comfortable, boring position! I think there’s a lot of clubs who would be happy to have the amount of points we have after 15 games in the Premier League, and there’s a lot who would want to have our sort of infrastructure and potential to build for the future too.
Centre Circle Magazine
Wolves A change of expectation By Alex Newey The 2014/2015 season was over and Wolves had missed out on the play offs by goal difference, we couldn’t have got any closer and there was hope that with some improvement to the first team, next season would be our turn to at the very least get into the play offs. 5th Favourite with many bookies to be champions, a head coach in Kenny Jackett who was rated as the best in the Championship by a well respected football magazine and a striker who we ended up turning down £10m for..... How many other Championship teams had that as a starting point? Fans renewed their season tickets buoyed by the fact our CEO Jez Moxey said that we would spend money to replace Bakary Sako, they were told by Mr Moxey, ‘It comes at a price, but we’re willing to do that’..... We got Sheyi Ojo on loan, a young 18 year old from Liverpool who no doubt may have a bright future, but is a million miles away from being a replacement for Sako, it seems the spending money bit was forgotten. We added Connor Coady, Jed Wallace and Nathan Byrne for a total of around £3million, the £275,000 reportedly paid for Wallace is contested by Jez Moxey who at a fans parliament suggested that figure was too low. We made loan moves for Emiliano Martinez after releasing back up goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, Sheyi Ojo and Adam Le Fondre and got French youngster Sylvain Deslandes on a free for the under 21s. We sold player of the season Richard Stearman, Michael Jacobs and released a raft of players such as club captain Sam Ricketts, Leon Clarke and Kevin Doyle. At a conservative estimate this brought in around £2m, taking our net spend to around the £1.5m mark
(again if we’re being generous), not what many Wolves fans had in mind after being promised the club would spend money. There is also a strong suspicion that our wage bill will have been slashed by these transfers. How does this relate to our change of expectation? Jump forward 19 games and Wolves currently sit mid table in 14th, the owner Steve Morgan has thrown in the towel without any explanation and has put the club up for sale, the football being played is to put it politely, dull and unrecognisable from last season. We were told by Kenny Jackett that we only bring players in who will improve the starting 11, the majority of players brought in can be found on the bench or not even in the match day squad these days. Whether we blame head of recruitment and development Kevin Thelwell or Kenny Jackett for that is anybody’s guess, as nobody knows how our recruitment process works? I’ve personally been to at least 3 games where players have been booed off at full time for a lack of effort and have been told that it has happened at other games as well. We have seen what can only be described as bizarre decisions by Kenny Jackett when it comes to tactics, player selections and substitutions, that would be 2 substitutions as he doesn’t like to use 3. I see the logic that you don’t want to be left with 10 men if someone gets injured, but when you’re losing a game it can be incredibly frustrating. We’ve got a £10m striker who looks fed up at a lack of service, a statement was released by Wolves after the first Norwich bid for Benik Afobe stating, ‘neither Benik nor any of Wolves’ first team forward players, will be sold this season’. We have recently been informed by Jez Moxey at a fans parliament meeting, ‘We thought it was the best thing for the team at the time to refuse to sell Benik but we didn’t seem to
Pages 18&19
Wolves get much credit for having done so, likewise with refusing to sell Sako last January when we could have. Now, given the position of the club being up for sale, everything has to be up for debate and renewal. We’ll have to think about it very carefully.’ In my opinion that reads that the old statement doesn’t apply anymore. From 19 games this season our record is W6 D6 L7, it is the record of a very average mid table team and that is exactly the way we are playing. The apathy around Molineux tells the story, there are a lot of very loyal fans who have finally had enough, have already stopped going and won’t be renewing their season ticket next year, a fan base living more in hope than expectation that we can find a good run of form or a wealthy owner to come in and change things around. It is a very young Wolves team and they will improve but the big question has to be asked, how could
a season that started out with so much promise go so disastrously wrong and who is to blame? It appears what was a very simple task of just making a couple of additions to our first 11 and a couple of back ups to cover injuries, has turned into a bungling series of calamities that has managed to turn a team that missed out on the play offs on goal difference into a mediocre mid table team, that has at times had to have a sly peak over its shoulder at the bottom 3. In any other work place such decisions would have senior staff very worried about waking up to a P45 one morning, but at Wolves it is par for the course and with the local media not willing to ask any tough questions, there is simply no one to answer to. Except the fans of course, who will simply not part with their cash next year, fed up of lies and underperformance.
Centre Circle Magazine
Stick or twist? By Taran Dhamrait With the recent announcement that Wolves is up for sale it then begs the question, should the potential new owner be looking to spend big to achieve promotion into the Premier League, or stick to their current strategy of buying young players and developing academy prospects? A classic modern day example of spending big and failing is Portsmouth, who currently find themselves in League 2. From 2003/04 to 2009/10, the season that ended their 7 year Premier League stay, they had spent over £99 million. The 2007/08 season was their highest finish, finishing in 8th, spending £40m so understandably it was a relatively successful season. However, this is not always the case, since the following two seasons also saw continued spending by Portsmouth, buying the wrong players for a total of £26m, which saw them fall from grace with a drop down a division and eventually four years later they ended up in League 2. Wolves’ three recent top flight seasons and the horrendous Solbakken reign, where Wolves spent in total £46m on player purchases (net spend £19m), was much more than people would have imagined. Are they an example of a club spending big and failing? You could are argue the answer is yes. In the two years the club went from the Premier League to League 1, in which they spent £10m in their relegation season from the Championship. Their record breaking season in League 1 brought a change, resulting in the following three seasons from their relegation a spend of only £6m. Some view this as not having spent enough, but they were also saying the club had spent heavily in 2012-13 too. Wolves’ new approach of signing “young and hungry”
players, as well as developing youth, will obviously take time to work. Bolton Wanderers failed to pay their players wages recently, whilst sitting with a staggering £185m debt which owner Eddie Davies has paid off in order to enable a quick sale. They are bottom of the Championship and are looking destined for League 1 and possibly administration. Bolton hadn’t prepared for their relegation into the Championship and the majority of their squad still had big Premier League wages which saw losses of £50m in 2012-13. This was as a result of overspending beyond their means, during their time in the “promised land” recording losses of £22m during their 11 year stay. With their parachute payments gone, Bolton also looks to be gone. A few miles down the road from Portsmouth we have Southampton, who now have a world renowned academy with Andre Villas Boas comparing it to Sporting Lisbon and praising its ability to produce “Star Players”. In the past 11 years Southampton have sold their sought after youth products for over £103m. Those include Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana, giving the club the funds to be competitive through League 1 to the Premier League where they can be considered a stable Premier League team. Yet their record signing cost them £11m, which is a dip in the ocean compared to their player sales, however their last three seasons has seen them spend over £120m. They have spent wisely though, buying suitable players and also making sure they have earned a big income through selling players they’ve developed for large figures. This strategy of developing players to be sold on for a huge profit, whilst slowly progressing as a club into the
Pages 20&21
Wolves Premier League and enabling them to spend big is a template that Wolves are trying to emulate. Will the new owner learn anything from the spending the current owner, Steve Morgan, has made? He bought the club in 2007 for £10 from Sir Jack Hayward but with the provision that a further £30m would be invested into the club. The last published accounts showed a pre-tax profit of £8.5m after releasing provisions, made the previous year, to account for still paying some premiership wages combined with fact that these players would not achieve full open market valuations when sold. This followed a loss in 2013 of £5.7m and a profit in 2012 of £1.8m. The club’s wage structure whilst in the Premier League was one of the lowest (17th according to a 2012 premier league club survey) but this was relative to the other clubs in that league, so the wage level of certain players took its toll on the club’s finances following successive relegations. From the 2007/08 season to present day, the club spent £62m on buying players whilst players sold amounted to £42m in the same period. Thus net spend was £20m over 8 and a half seasons, a modest sum when compared to the likes Portsmouth. The club certainly have had a roller coaster ride in that time. The talk is that the current owner wants around £30m-£40m for the club, certainly a snip compared to their local premier league rivals’ selling prices that are being quoted, but will the new owner want to take a punt at trying to get the club into the top flight?
Centre Circle Magazine
Top TWEETS Ian Saunderson
Nath_11x
Phil Fisk
@iansaunderson
@nat765
@FiskPhil
To all the #avfc fans moaning about Remi treatment of Kozak....3 managers not fancied him. Coincidence?
If we sell Gray we WILL regret it. Mark my words. Bit of bad form and people jump on his back #BCFC
@partridge1971 @KieranCrowley1 hope I’m wrong but I will be amazed if he (Armstrong) is still here after Jan #PUSB
Roger. W
Si
@RogW38
@aletales_
Matt Partridge
When game time comes round i always find a bit of hope from somewhere. Being realistic mind struggling for a chink of light in truth
I got a bad feeling about Swansea and Rowett #bcfc
@partridge1971
John Ward @johnwxxiv
Neil Fox @FoxyN77
Next 10 league games, a lot of winnable matches, here we should be aiming for 20 pts (6W 2D). It’s do or die. #avfc
Ryan Dunphy @superryandunphy
Saunders dickov and sod all applied for Walsall hahaha, only one winner! #walsallfc #drfc #wfc Mark @MarkRobinson69
Cracking strike @reeceflan94 against the Vale. Keep working hard you have a bright future. #onetowatch #futurestar #walsallfc Joseph Masi @JosephMasi_Star I could be wrong but reading between the lines, I expect Whitney, Ward & Cutler to be in charge for Chesterfield #saddlers #walsallfc
Is the demise of medium size clubs after relegation from the prem inevitable because of the massive loss of revenue? #CCFC #bcfc
Andi Purewal @AndiPurewal My Views on why Berahino’s time at the club seems up unfortunately #wba Matt @matthewlhunter Fantastic to see the #WBA lads helping raise awareness for such a great cause! Dan @danwbaayit Do miss @OdemwingieP despite his Guinness filled meltdown will always love him for his goals for us #wba
@FiskPhil @KieranCrowley1 It’ll definitely need some Mowbray magic but I’ve got faith in the man! #pusb Matty ‘CCFC’ Roper @M_Roper96
Looks like it’s going to be around 2500 City supporters travelling to Chesterfield then...superb support again! #PUSB
Stephen Lapper @stephenlapper
Utter rubbish. He (Holt) should have come on against Burnley & MK Dons. I’d understand if we’re winning every week! Sunil Patel @SunilPatel29
Having to pay £33 to go watch Wolves away at Sheffield Wednesday is daylight robbery. A £6 price increase from last year theblarneyinfo @theblarneyinfo
3 of next 4 #wwfc games at home. Hoping to continue winning spree against Forest Friday. Same squad as Rotherham game.
Legal notice: All opinions in this magazine reflect the views of those contributing and not necessarily the ownership and/or editorial team
Pages 22&23
fan Interview: Martyn Walters (West Brom) Hello. What is your name and who do you support? My name is Martyn Walters and I support West Bromwich Albion.
Have you got a season ticket and if you have, how long have you had it? I have had my current season ticket for two seasons although previously I have had three season tickets over two or three year periods.
What is your first memory of supporting your team? One particular memory that stands out would be when the club first got promoted to the Premier League. Overturning an eleven point deficit to pip local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers to promotion made it that little sweeter.
What was the first game you ever attended? I can’t remember who we played in the first match I attended, but I do remember my first away game. Nottingham Forest on a Friday night we won the game 1-0, still have fond memories of that night today.
How do you see this season going? We have made a solid start and the ingredients are there for the club to have a really positive season. Finishing inside the top ten would be a terrific achievement but I would be quite contempt with a mid-table finish somewhere around 12-13th place.
What do you think of your key players and manager? Since Tony Pulis took charge of the club almost a year ago results have improved considerably since the forgettable reign of Alan Irvine. Some argue Pulis adopts a very negative style of football but actually since he took over we have at times played some eye catching football. It’s not always possible to play ‘sexy football’ and for me results are more important. Jonny Evans since he joined from Manchester United has been outstanding with his experience and quality there to see, at £6m he looks very good value for money. The club paid out an initial £12m for Salomon Rondon so a lot was expected of him after he swapped Russia for the Black Country. Despite scoring just the three goals so far his overall game has been very impressive, his work rate and hold-up play is second to none. As the season develops I am confident he will add plenty to his current goal tally.
If you could make one change at your club, what would it be? Recently the club Chairman Jeremy Peace held talks with potential investors regarding a possible takeover of the club however nothing materialised from this. Whilst I am aware takeovers don’t guarantee success (i.e. Portsmouth and Birmingham City), it would be interesting to see how far this club could go with a little bit of investment from the right people.
Centre Circle Magazine
Page 24
Next Issue...
We’re still on the lookout for writers; we want to make sure we can give all our clubs an equal amount of coverage asap! We’ll also begin featuring advertising space from issue 2, so if you want to write for us or advertise your business with us, please email us at centrecirclemag@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow us on our social media sites too by clicking the logos!
released 26th February 2016