Baggie Shorts WEST BROMWICH ALBION LONDON SUPPORTERS CLUB ISSUE 18
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Baggie Shorts WEST BROMWICH ALBION LONDON SUPPORTERS CLUB ISSUE 18 01 contents 03 09 19 View from Charlton Athletic An evening with the Chair Match Report Magic Johnson Steve Watts Sussex Baggies Ian Tinsley 05 11 21 A letter from Looking When legends the editors forward were made Glenn Hess Jon Want Jon Want 07 17 25 Seventy years Q&A with Managers watching the Albion Mike Moren Survey Mike Vass Aidan Rose Aidan Rose Email us at: BaggieShorts@b�nternet.com @LondonBaggies We always appreciate submissions, from match West Bromwich Albion Supporters reports and photos to op-eds and think pieces. Club London Branch @LondonBaggies Cover images by Laurie Rampling taken at the match versus Bristol City on New Year’s Day 1979. W londonbaggies.com 01 Pereira tells Diangana that the latest Baggie Shorts will be out in �me for Christmas! Picture: Laurie Rampling 02 View from the Chair Welcome everyone to the latest youth (Edwards and Ferguson) and edi�on of Baggie Shorts. ge�ng the best out of players like Bartley, Hal and Livermore. On a Without wishing to tempt fate we personal level, my new year wish in seem to be having a wonderful respect of the Albion is for Nathan season of what is at �mes breath- Ferguson to sign a new contract! taking and scin�lla�ng football. It has been many years since our play My only gripe about this season is has drawn admirers from across that because we are such an football. Whilst Tony Pulis kept us in a�rac�ve team, our games are the Premier League, the simple fact regularly ge�ng regularly moved is that the football was awful at for TV. This is a double-edged sword �mes. because it does mean we can at least watch games if we can find a At the �me of wri�ng, following our pub showing it (and it’s not in win at Birmingham that saw us conflict with European games) but leapfrog Leeds at the top of the I’m sure we would take many more table (again) and, more London fans (and fans generally) to importantly, establish 12-point gap the games if they were weekend with teams vying for third place. I’m kick-offs. I, along with many other especially looking forward to London Baggies, would love to get avenging our defeat to Leeds by to more games but midweek away bea�ng them on New Year’s Day. at Preston or Wigan is a big ask and I must give credit to the Albion’s ge�ng up for work the next day recruitment team for bringing in becomes challenging. Roll-on a few Romaine, Pereira, Furlong, Semi, more London and south-east Grady and Charlie in the summer games in the new year! and give thanks for Slaven’s belief in The branch is s�ll thriving with the 03 addi�on of new members; a very date has seen some issues to deal warm welcome to anyone who has with both personally and at work recently joined or re-joined. Special which has meant the regular thanks to all those who have branch mee�ngs have not taken assisted with driving up numbers place; I promise to do be�er in the and crea�ng a vital branch, pu�ng new year as my workload eases and in the hard yards (o�en other things get back on track. I unappreciated - but not by me!), hope you will join me at those organising events, travel, special future mee�ngs as the branch evenings and pu�ng together belongstoallofusanditistosome Baggie Shorts, maintaining our extent a collec�ve responsibility to social media presence and try to make it flourish in whatever generally trying to drag the branch small way we can - which may just upward and onward. To all of you, mean turning up for mee�ngs. and you know who you are, I say a big thank-you on behalf of both Finally, Merry Christmas and a myself and more importantly the happy new year to everyone; let’s whole branch. hope that for 2020, in the words of Yazz, the only way is up! Regre�ably for me, this season to Steve Wa�s, Chair London Baggies TLIMS - The Lord Is My Shepherd 04 a letter from the editors Welcome to the happiest Baggie Shorts For me, Slaven is our best manager so far this season. A flawless ever and, as I men�oned in my last November followed by three wins from editorial, it is also �me to praise our four so far in December means we are directors for appoin�ng Mr. Bilić. top of the table and deservedly so. We So far, a�er 22 matches, he has have been playing deligh�ul football achieved a 64% win rate. Compare that showcased with a scin�lla�ng 5-1 win to Pardew who a�er a similar number against a good Swansea team. of games, 21, achieved a win rate of It’s not quite reached those heights in 14%! the last two games at Wigan and Blues, Sta�cally, in our history during my but Leeds’ capitula�on against Cardiff Albion suppor�ng life �me (68 years so saw us back on top of the league. far), no manager has got anywhere In this bulging Christmas issue there near those win figures. (Ossie comes are no turkeys but we do have so many closest at 55%). cracking ar�cles stuffed in including, in Now let’s look at the players Slaven has no par�cular order, the View from the brought to us for our delecta�on. Chair (thank you to Il Presidente), the quiz on the back page (how did you do Grady Diangana - a genius, a game with the last issue?), Jon Want changer, who was about to go to Derby concludes his look at the summer on loan at the beginning of the season signings with the a�acking players, when our Slaven with the help of Julian Mike Vass reflects on following the Dicks made him an offer he couldn’t Baggies for 70 years while Aidan refuse. Mind you no one in their right interviews Mike Moren in the Q&A mind would refuse those two!!!! sec�on. There is also a match report Matheus Pereira - the best footballer I from our Sussex con�ngent, a report have seen in Albion colours for on our managers survey, a piece by Ian decades. A lot of fans think he’s the Tinsley on AJ’s visit to the banch and a best Albion player ever! He can run, look back to a very special December tackle, score penal�es and free kicks, some forty years ago. pass onto a 1p piece, in fact pre�y 05 much anything, and he’s tough as old Slaven is a huge hero in my house and boots. He is virtually signed up in his na�ve land Croa�a and was their although as I write this he’s officially na�onal team manager; enormously s�ll on loan. respected at his last English club, West Ham, and a talented enthusias�c Nathan Ferguson - a 19 year old and coach. he’s one of our own. Discovered by Slaven at the beginning of the season I can’t recall any coach before him who and has just grown into an immense has encouraged us to play with a huge talent. We need to sign him up pronto. smile on our face, made such canny subs�tu�ons at the right �me of the Semi Ajayi - cost £1.3m, peanuts in gameandIbelieveonecanseethelove today’s inflated foo�e world, and now and respect the players have for him. under Mr. Bilić has become a top And we, the fans, love him too (I think Premier League quality defender and he is the biggest reason for our success has formed a solid partnership with the so far) and I can see him guiding us to so-much-be�er-than-last-season Kyle Premier League success really soon. Bartley. Finally, a very Merry Christmas to all Romaine Sawyers - cost believed to be members from everyone at the Baggie around £3-4m. Another brilliant signing Shorts team. Let’s hope 2020 is a who is an Albion fan and is so happy to successful year for Albion! be with us again a�er his tenure in our academy. He’s another one of our own Glenn Hess again. The players are all pulling together under Bilić. Picture: Laurie Rampling 06 seventy years of watching the Albion Watching the Baggies for all those years must give the opportunity to savour the odd moment. Fortunately, Mike Vass manages to do so. I suppose you could say it was predes�ned faltered badly in the final few games and that I would become a fan of our beloved our mid-week draw at Orient in the football club. I was born on 22nd February penul�mate match meant we could clinch 1941 and, on that same day, Albion promo�on with a victory. The game went defeated No�s County 5-0 in a war�me cup into the second half with the score line match having lost the away leg 4-0 the goalless and we were all aware that Bolton previous Saturday. were cruising to victory at Charlton. My first visit to the Hawthorns, as far as I Cometh the hour cometh the man and can recall, was in April 1949 when my father ‘Bomber’ did the business with a cracking and I were in a crowd of 39,241 to witness goal.