No special privileges for England new boy – boss
JAKE Livermore will not walk back into the Albion team following his England call-up, Tony Pulis warned.
The 27-year-old was fighting fires with relegation-threatened Hull City a few short weeks ago.
That was before the Baggies paid £10 million to bring the all-action midfielder to The Hawthorns.
Six appearances for his new club later, and Livermore was drafted into Gareth Southgate’s first squad as permanent England manager.
Rapid rise would be an understatement. Things only got better for the former Tottenham trainee when he started the friendly against world champions Germany in Dortmund last week. Livermore has returned to training with his club ahead of Saturday’s trip to Old Trafford – and his manager will not allow him to become complacent.
“There’s good competition there so I wouldn’t get too carried away if I was Jake,” Pulis said.
“There’s Yac, Fletch, James, you can play Brunty in there, we’ve got young Sam, who we really rate, coming through. So there’s a good group. I think he’ll know that so I don’t think there will be any problems with that.”
Pulis will not hesitate to tell Livermore straight if he gets ideas above his station, but the experienced Welshman is also well versed in a spot of reverse psychology.
Anything to get the best out of his players. “You use every method,” he said. “All the experience you gain over a period of time is put into practice.
“We had a meeting last week and the lads thought I was going to give them a rollicking for two defeats and I actually said ‘no, we’ve done fantastic’.
“All this criticism, fine, that’s part and parcel of it. Show how fantastic you’ve done by putting in a performance against Arsenal. That’s all I want.
“There will be other times when we win games and I won’t be happy and I’ll pull them in and have a go.
“I’ve had a situation with a top player, not just at this club, where I’ve told them at the beginning of the week I’m leaving them out. Then I’ve looked at what reaction they’ve given me.
“As a matter of fact, I was never going to leave them out, and then at the end of the week I’ve picked them.
“There’s certain things you do as a manager, things you think are right and wrong.”