Moore warns Albion’s attitude must change
Relegated club have had a bumpy landing back in the Championship, reports Steve Madeley
If West Bromwich Albion fans believed a bright spring had banished all trace of their winter of discontent, Darren Moore has a sobering message. The Albion head coach, whose caretaker stint in charge at the end of last season brought renewed hope and earned him the full-time job, is in no doubt about the scale of the task ahead.
For Moore, the mission to rebuild from the wreckage of a dreadful season is only just beginning, and a haul of just one point from two games back in the Championship has hardly made his life any easier.
“The mentality of the group and the club, that’s all got to change,” said the man whose exploits as a player gave him a head start when it came to reconnecting with a disenchanted fan base. “That’s what I’m trying to do. The only way it changes is by working on the training ground and getting results on the pitch.
“It should be a challenge that we’re all looking forward to, not just a single department, but everybody. If we are to change this, all departments need to help.
“We’ve been in the Premier League against some elite European giants and to mix it with those teams we had to go with a certain game plan and we’ve conformed to that for the last five, six or seven years.
“The mindset of the players has been a certain way. We’re now in the Championship and are equal to the other teams.
“I’m different to other managers that have been here, I have my own ideas,” Moore added. “There has to be and there will be a change as we go along but it won’t come overnight, you’ve got to build it steadily and slowly. As well as doing that, you’ve got to get results.”
The process of transforming the club for life back in the second tier has not got off to a promising start.
After eight successive seasons in the Premier League, a home defeat by Bolton Wanderers and a battling draw at Nottingham Forest, in which Albion took an hour to discover some cohesion, have eaten away a little at the sense of optimism that greeted the start of the season.
Yet Moore is hoping that Thursday, and the closure of the summer transfer window, will aid his efforts to recalibrate a club still feeling the effects of one of the most dismal seasons in Premier League history.
Just two league wins under Tony Pulis before his dismissal in November were followed by just one in more than four months under Alan Pardew, whose reign came to be defined by the debacle on a mid-season training trip to Barcelona, when players were accused of stealing a taxi after a late night out in the city centre.
Moore restored some dignity with three victories and one defeat from six games in interim charge, including wins against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Yet the summer was marred by transfer demands from Ben Foster, Craig Dawson and James Mcclean and speculation over several senior players.
Foster and Mcclean engineered their exits from the club but Dawson remains, despite a £10million bid having been made by Burnley.
“The window’s closed now, so players need to focus on the job in hand,” said Moore. “It can be a distraction, not just for the boys involved but the whole squad, every player.
“Now it’s closed, mentally it helps people channel their minds and thoughts. It quietens the noise down a bit.” Dawson, whose displays at centre-back underpinned the Moore-led revival last season, must now be reintegrated into the squad and reintroduced to fans disgruntled at his attempts to walk away.
“Craig’s a fantastic player who is part of the family here,” said Moore. “My message to the fans is to continue supporting him as they’ve always done.”
With or without Dawson, Moore now faces a daunting task to shape a side to match the expectations of a former Premier League club from a distinctly rocky start.
So, what kind of team does Moore envisage having in three or four months? “Let’s just get to three or four months,” he smiled.
If supporters thought that the Championship campaign would be plain sailing, their manager knows differently.