Megson back in charge as West Brom sack Pulis

LONDON: Tony Pulis has been sacked as West Bromwich Albion manager after a sequence of poor results, the Premier League club said yesterday.

The 59-year-old Pulis, one of the League’s most experienced managers, has paid the price after nearly three years at Albion with the Midlands club struggling just a point above the relegation zone.

Pulis’s assistant Gary Megson, the club’s manager between 2000 and 2004, will take over as caretaker.

West Brom’s 4-0 hammering at home by Chelsea on Saturday proved the final straw for the Chinese owner of the Midlands club, Guochuan Lai, who was growing impatient with the club’s poor form.

Albion had won their first three games of the season but had not managed a victory in any competition since late August when they beat League Two Accrington Stanley 3-1 in the Carabao Cup.

They subsequently failed to earn a win with even the pragmatic Pulis, whose prosaic sides have usually been mainly notable for being dif- ficult to beat. Pulis said he would not be surprised if he was dismissed.

Pulis, who has also managed Stoke City and Crystal Palace in the Premier League, became West Brom’s manager in January 2015, taking over when they were in a precarious postion but guiding them from 17th to 13th by the end of the season. – Reuters