West Bromwich Albion F.C.
| West Bromwich Albion crest | |||
| Full name | West Bromwich Albion Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Baggies, The Throstles, The Hermos founded = 1878 | ||
| Ground | The Hawthorns West Bromwich | ||
| Capacity | 28,003 | ||
| Chairman |  Jeremy Peace | ||
| Manager | Bryan Robson | ||
| League | The Championship | ||
| 2005-06 | 19th, FA Premier League (relegated) | ||
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West Bromwich Albion Football Club is an English football club formed in 1878 by workers from Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich (then in Staffordshire, now part of the West Midlands). They currently play in the Football League Championship.
Their original nickname, 'The Throstles' originated because they had a thrush on their shirt badges. The more colloquial nickname and the more popular one is 'The Baggies'. There are several theories for how this name may have originated. One suggestion is that the name was bestowed on Albion supporters by their rivals at Aston Villa, because of the characteristic baggy moleskin trousers that many Albion fans wore at work to protect themselves from molten iron in the foundries of the Black Country, West Bromwich being a centre of the 'puddling industry'. It could also originate from the turnstile operators who took bags of money from the turnstiles to the cash office located on the halfway. As they emerged during the first half the crowd would say 'here come the baggies', and the name then stuck.
They won their only league title in 1920. They have won the F.A Cup five times, the most recent triumph being in 1968 when they beat Everton thanks to a goal from iconic centre-forward Jeff Astle. This is their most recent major trophy. Albion's most recent successful era came under Ron Atkinson in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they qualified for the UEFA Cup twice and on one occasion reached the quarter final.
A decline set in and Albion were relegated to the Second Division in 1986 after winning just four league games all season. In 1991 they slipped into the third tier of the league for the first time in their history, but were promoted two years later. They reached the Premiership in 2002, but were relegated after just one season. They regained their Premiership place at the first time of asking, and clung on to it for two seasons before going down again.
Their current manager Bryan Robson was a key player in the Albion side of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He went on to captain Manchester United and England. Other key players to have worn an Albion shirt include Bob Taylor, Laurie Cunningham, Remi Moses, Cyrille Regis, Brian Talbot, Enzo Maresca, Scott Dobie, Zoltan Gera and Jason Roberts. Significant former managers include Vic Buckingham, Gary Megson, Osvaldo Ardiles, Bobby Gould, Ron Atkinson and Alan Ashman. Secretary-manager Fred Everiss, who managed Albion from 1902 until 1948, holds the record for the longest-serving manager in English football (46 years).
History
Early Days (1879 - 1888)
The club was founded as a result of the dissolution of an earlier football club, West Bromwich Strollers. That was started in 1878 by several of the players who went on to form the Albion in 1879 -- including Bob Roberts and the Bell cousins -- who wanted to extend the activity of the cricket club that they had formed. The Strollers were assisted by the encouragement and the connections of Old Etonian, the Reverend William Carter, later Archbishop of Cape Town, who was doing missionary work in West Bromwich. He was able to provide the youngsters -- who were no more than 14 and 15 years old at this point -- with a pitch and a meeting place in the Church. When Carter left West Bromwich in the summer of 1879, to take up a position in Bakewell, the Strollers folded, and the players collected cash for a new football and portable goals for the new West Bromwich Albion club, which started off its existence with two games against the White Hart public house team, the pub which was to become the Albion's first HQ. They won those two games with an aggregate of twenty goals for, and none against. For the first two seasons of their existence, Albion played local sides on parks pitches throughout West Bromwich, Smethwick and Wednesbury, occasionally travelling as far afield as Stourbridge to get a game. The real breakthrough came at the start of the 1881-82 season, when they decided to pay a subscription to join the Birmingham & District Football Association, thus becoming eligible for their first competition -- the Birmingham Senior Cup. It was their run to the quarter finals of that tournament -- beating, as they did, established sides such as the then famous Wednesbury side Elwells FC and Edgabaston side Calthorpe -- which made their name in the Birmingham press. Suddenly, the local papers began to take notice of the little club, and began reporting on their games. By 1882, they had also joined the Staffordshire FA, and after another good run in the Birmingham Cup, they won the Staffs Cup -- their first trophy -- by beating Stoke 3-2 at the Victoria Ground. That was the catalyst for national success. At that time, every county had its own cup competition, and the various cup holders were welcome visitors all around the country; so it was that Albion began to arrange choice fixtures against the likes of Preston, Bolton. Blackburn and Wrexham. They also moved ground. After a season in their own enclosure, The Birches, they upped sticks because of the poor drainage there, and rented Four Acres from their former rivals, West Bromwich FC, where they would remain for three years, allowed, by the conditions of their lease, only to play home games on Saturdays and Monday, but not in the cricket season, as the ground was used then by the Dartmouth Cricket Club!
Inter-war and the championship (1919 - 1939)
The war-time diaspora of a promising young team did not stop individuals from remaining active footballers in charity matches, amateur teams and regional leagues. When normal competition resumed in 1919, the team was prepared and ready for the new start and achieved the club's only league title in 1920. However, subsequent seasons were a disappointment as Pennington retired and the side started to break up. The mediocrity was only alleviated by a second place in the league in the season 1924/1925 when they were narrowly beaten to the title by Herbert Chapman's phenomenal Huddersfield Town A.F.C.
The year 1926 saw relegation to the second division. Ironically, relegation enabled an achievement which is, as of 2006, unique in English football. In 1931 the club won both the FA Cup and promotion back to the top flight. The club were only deprived of the second division championship by the goal-scoring exploits of Dixie Dean of Everton F.C.
Though the same players who had won promotion performed creditably in the first division during the 1930s, (in 1936 William Richardson scored 39 league goals, still a club record), the death of Billy Bassett in 1937 marked the end of a footballing era. As the team again entered a period of reconstruction, Albion were relegated in 1938. With the 1939/1940 season only a few games old, World War II broke out and football was suspended.
Post-war renaissance (1945 - 1963)
Once normal league competition was resumed in 1946 (the 1945/46 season had been organised on a regional basis) Albion remained stuck in the Second Division. The turning point arrived with the retirement of Everiss in 1948. Unlike most other contemporary clubs, Albion had yet to implement the modern role of a coach or manager. Everiss was the club's administrative secretary and delivered the pre-match talk; the board of directors, which had replaced the old Club Committee, selected the team. Kicking a football played no part in training which was for fitness alone. Albion's first modern manager was Jack Smith who took the team back to the First Division in 1949. As England emerged into an era of post-war prosperity, a talented new squad started to develop, marked by the arrival of Ronnie Allen in 1950, scoring against Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. on his home debut in front of a crowd of 60,000.
However, the board were frustrated by the lack of trophies and Smith was dismissed in 1952. Radically, Smith was replaced by Juventus F.C. coach Jesse Carver who introduced football into training. Though Carver was soon to be seduced back to Italy by S.S. Lazio, (although domestic household pressures were a paramount factor) his eight months in charge were a defining moment for the club. His replacement, Vic Buckingham, recruited from the amateur leagues, inherited an intelligent well-co-ordinated team, playing a flowing syle of attacking football that he was to build upon. The season 1953/1954 saw Albion win the FA Cup and finish second in the league, behind Wolverhampton Wanderers, narrowly missing out on the first English double of the 20th century.
The next couple of seasons were, in football terms, an anticlimax for the club. However, they also saw the arrival of players Don Howe, Derek Kevan and Bobby Robson. From 1957 to 1961, the team played an attractive, imaginative and stylish brand of attacking football that never quite materialised into a trophy. In the season 1957/1958, Allen, Kevan and Robson scored 78 goals between them. With Buckingham's departure to Ajax in 1959, the club saw another decline, Jimmy Hagan being recruited to arrest the slide in 1963.
Astle and after (1964 - 1977)
September 1964 saw the arrival of striker Jeff Astle from Notts County F.C. Over the next decade, Astle was to become the club's most iconic player ever. The club was already feeling the dramatic social changes of the 1960s, tangibly through falling attendances and the end of the players' maximum wage. Hagan was, despite the spirit of the times, a martinet on the training ground and frequently bred conflict with a playing squad beginning to enjoy the decade's economic and social freedoms. However, he shrewdly built the team in personnel and skill, leading them to a League Cup triumph in 1966.
During this time the club's attack was built around the strike duo of Astle and Tony Brown, with Bobby Hope prompting from midfield and Clive Clark on the wing.
The following season was a hollow disappointment with Albion losing in the final of the League Cup to Third Division Queens Park Rangers F.C., making an early exit from their first European campaign and struggling to maintain their place in the First Division. Had Hagan had more friends at the Hawthorns, he might have been given time to fix the problems but, in 1967, he was replaced by Alan Ashman. Ashman led Albion to FA Cup victory in 1968, Astle becoming the first player to score in every round, but subsequently, despite some exciting cup runs, the manager could not deliver the trophies the club craved.
Don Howe seemed the perfect replacement for Ashman when he arrived as manager in 1971. A former Albion player, he had just coached Arsenal F.C. to their league and cup double and was regarded as one of the games foremost theoreticians. However, theory proved no match for practice, the club being relegated to the Second Division in 1973. Failure to achieve promotion back the following season and the departure of Astle in 1974 seemed to presage a gloomy future. Fortuitiously, Albion was gifted by the short leaderships of Johnny Giles and Ronnie Allen who began the work of rebuilding the team. Sadly, the club was insuffucently ambitious and prescient to work hard at securing either's long term-services.
Atkinson's Albion mix it with the best (1978 - 1981)
When unknown young manager Ron Atkinson arrived at the club in 1978, he inherited a team that already included youth-team graduate Bryan Robson and the young, gifted and black pair of Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis, both acquired inexpensively from lower divisions.
Aware that he had the makings of a great team, he augmented it by bringing Brendan Batson from his former club Cambridge United F.C. Never before had an English team simultaneously fielded three black players and the Three Degrees, as they became known in reference to the contemporary vocal trio of the same name, challenged the established racism of English football and marked a watershed that allowed a generation of footballers to enter the game who would previously have been excluded by their ethnic background.
Albion's greatest game during the Ron Atkinson era would probably be the 5-3 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford in December 1978.
Atkinson's team played some of the most exciting football in England during his term at the club but, as early as 1978, the board allowed the playing talent to start slipping away, Cunningham's move to Real Madrid marking the start of the trend. The club managed 3rd and 4th places in the First Division and, more than once, reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup but trophies narrowly eluded them.
Following the tragic death of director Tom Silk in a plane crash, the club fell again under the conservative leadership of Bert Millichip and Atkinson, despairing of the support he needed to build and maintain a winning team, took the vacant manager's post at Manchester United F.C. in the summer of 1981.
Atkinson goes and Albion decline (1982 - 1986)
Ronnie Allen returned to The Hawthorns in the summer of 1981, a surprise choice to replace Atkinson. Immediately he was encouraged by the board to sell two of his prize assets, Bryan Robson and Remi Moses, who departed for Manchester United in a new British transfer record deal of £2.5m. Their replacements were Martin Jol and Andy King, and for a while, things looked rosy, as Albion reached the semi-finals of both domestic cups. However, the usual post-Christmas slump saw the side needing to win its final home game, against Leeds United, to stay up. The game was won 2-0, and Leeds were relegated instead.
At the end of the season, Allen was 'kicked upstairs' and Coventry City coach Ron Wylie took over. He stopped the slide, for a while, but a falling out between his head coach, Mick Kelly, and his players, led to his resignation in 1985. In came the 'A Team' - Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter and Nobby Stiles. They reversed the sinking trend in the 1983-84 season - although, disastrously, they lost their first game, at home to Third Division Plymouth Argyle, who went on to reach the semi-finals, in the FA Cup - and things improved the following year.
The seeds of collapse were being sown however. Financial difficulties at the club forced Giles to sell Cyrille Regis to lighten the wage bill. Other players followed for the same reason and were generally inadequately replaced. By October 1985, it was looking grim for the club and Giles was replaced by his assistant Nobby Stiles. Stiles lasted only a few months before being replaced by Ron Saunders. By this time, Albion were finished, bottom of the table and certain to be relegated.
Back in the Second Division (1986-87)
The Albion directors kept faith in Saunders after their relegation and he tried to put the club back on track by building a new team. But these changes did little to halt the rapid decline at the Hawthorns and he was sacked after they finished in the bottom half of the Second Division in 1987.
Atkinson's Return (1987-89)
Atkinson returned to Albion in the summer of 1987 and halfway through his second season at the club they led the Second Division table, looking all set for promotion. But Atkinson was lured away to Atletico Madrid and midfielder Brian Talbot, 35, took over as player-manager.
Sinking to New Depths (1989-92)
Talbot was unable to maintain Albion's good form and they were unable to claim even a playoff place at the end of the 1988-89 season. 1989-90 brought even more frustration as Albion finished 20th in the Second Division - at the time the lowest final position in their history.
The Albion board finally lost patience with Talbot in January 1991 after they lost 4-2 at home to non-league Woking in the F.A Cup Third Round. He was replaced by Bobby Gould, who three seasons earlier had won the FA Cup with Wimbledon, but the managerial change was not enough to prevent Albion from being relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history.
Albion just missed out on the Third Division playoffs in 1992, and shortly afterwards Bobby Gould moved to Coventry City. His successor was Ossie Ardiles, whose playing career had yielded two F.A Cups and a UEFA Cup with Tottenham and the 1978 World Cup with Argentina. His managerial spells at Swindon Town and most recently Newcastle United had been less successful.
Wembley playoff glory (1992-93)
Ardiles was in charge at Albion for one season before becoming manager of Tottenham, but he guided them to victory over Port Vale in the 1992-93 playoff final of the new Division Two - their first successful season for more than a decade.
Burkinshaw blows it (1993-1994)
Albion turned to the former Tottenham manager Keith Burkinshaw as replacement for Ardiles. He had won the FA Cup two years in a row with Tottenham in the early 1980's but his spell at The Hawthorns was a huge disappointment. Albion only survived relegation back to Division Two at the end of 1993-94 because they had scored more goals than their nearest rivals, Birmingham City. Burkinshaw was sacked soon after that, and replaced by the Grimsby manager Alan Buckley.
Buckley steadies the sinking ship (1994-1997)
Under Alan Buckley, Albion's league form was consistently below average - but just enough to keep them safe from relegation. In October 1995 they were second in Division One and hopeful of automatic promotion. But then came a drastic loss of form over the next 14 games which saw them lose 13 games, draw one and win none. One point out of a possible 42. They looked set to be relegated to Division Two, but a big improvement in form during the final four months of the 1995-96 season saw them climb to mid table. Had it not been for that dreadful mid-season slump, Albion would surely have achieved automatic promotion.
Harford and Smith keep Albion afloat (1997-1999)
Buckley was sacked in January 1997 and was replaced by Ray Harford. Harford had previously been manager or assistant manager of Fulham, Luton Town, Wimbledon and Blackburn Rovers. He had won the League Cup while manager of Luton Town, and was assistant manager of the Blackburn side which won the 1995 Premiership title. After ensuring Albion's Division One safety in 1996-97, the following season, Harford's first full season in charge, saw Albion as a permanent fixture in the top six. He then stunned Albion by moving to QPR after less than a year in charge, making way for Denis Smith, who struggled to maintain the momentum created by Harford, and Albion could only finish 10th.
Relegation scare under Brian Little (1999-2000)
Smith, a former manager of York City, Sunderland and Oxford United, guided Albion to two successive mid-table finishes, but it was not enough for the Albion board and he was sacked in the summer of 1999. They appointed Brian Little as manager. Little had achieved promotion success with Darlington (twice) and Leicester City (once) as well as winning the League Cup with Aston Villa. But he was sacked the following March with Albion in real danger of relegation.
Megson rescues Albion (2000 - 2004)
Gary Megson was named as the new West Bromwich Albion manager in March 2000. He had previously been in charge at Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County and Stoke City, but had never achieved any real success. Many Albion fans were disappointed with the new chairman Paul Thompson because they wanted a more proven manager.
Megson's first objective was to keep Albion in Division One. He achieved this despite losing to nearest rivals (both geographically and in the league standings) Walsall in April. A last-day win over champions Charlton Athletic meant that Albion were safe and their neighbours Walsall would be going down to Division Two. Megson then rejuvenated the side by discarding several players and bringing in a host of new signings. The transition paid off in 2000-01, when Albion qualified for the Division One promotion playoffs - their highest league finish since relegation in 1986. They lost to eventual winners Bolton Wanderers in the playoff semi finals but the fans had plenty of hope for the 2001-02 season.
With 9 games to go before the end of the 2001-02 season, Albion were 11 points behind neighbours Wolves in the Division One table. But while Wolves lost five vital games during the run-in, Albion won seven out of nine fixtures (including the notorious Battle of Bramall Lane) and secured automatic promotion on the final day of the season by beating Crystal Palace at home, while Wolves could only manage a draw away to Sheffield Wednesday.
But the promotion dream which came true quickly turned into a nightmare. Chairman Paul Thompson quit the club after falling out with manager Gary Megson and new owner Jeremy Peace was unable to provide adequate transfer funds. So Albion began the 2002-03 season without any significant new squad members. They lost their first three games of the Premiership campaign and then won three in a row to occupy eighth place in the table by mid September. This gave Albion fans hope of Premiership survival. But they only won three of their next 32 Premiership fixtures and were relegated in 19th place with just 26 points, which left them 18 points adrift of safety.
2003-04 saw Albion return to the Premiership as runners-up to Norwich City, and this time everyone involved with the club was hopeful of staying up, but Albion won just one of their first 11 games of the 2004-05 Premiership campaign, and Gary Megson announced he would not be renewing his contract when it expired at the end of the season. The club's board reacted by immediately terminating the remainder of his contract, and they hired former player Bryan Robson as his replacement.
Before the 2004-05 season began, West Bromwich Albion striker Lee Hughes - the club's top scorer - was jailed for six years after being convicted of causing death by dangerous driving. Nine months earlier, he had been speeding along a road near Coventry when his Mercedes was involved in a head-on collision with a Renault. Hughes and his passenger, Adrian Smith, a school friend, suffered minor injuries but one of the passengers in the Renault was killed and three others were injured. Hughes fled the scene before turning himself in the next day.
As well as being sentenced to six years in prison, Lee Hughes was also sacked by West Bromwich Albion. Current manager Bryan Robson has spoken of the possibility that Hughes will return to the club when he comes out of prison in either 2006 or 2007.
Robson's return (2004 - present)
On November 9, 2004, the appointment of Bryan Robson as manager was announced. His immediate task was to maintain their Premiership position; at his appointment, Albion stood 17th in the table, the final safe spot. However, by Christmas, Albion were bottom of the Premiership. Every previous club in the history of the Premiership to have found itself in this situation had been relegated at season's end.
Albion did not get their first win under Robson until defeating Manchester City 2-0 on 22 January 2005. They finally moved off the bottom of the table in early March, and went on a four-match unbeaten streak, but remained in the drop zone throughout. At the beginning of May, a 1-1 draw with Manchester United combined with other results to leave Albion bottom of the Premiership. However, they still had a chance of survival, as only two points separated them from Norwich City, which occupied the final safe spot.
On a dramatic last day of the season, having beaten Portsmouth 2-0, Albion stayed up thanks to Crystal Palace, Norwich City and Southampton all failing to get the results needed, becoming the first team in the history of the Premiership to be bottom at Christmas and still escape relegation. They were also the first top division team to avoid the drop after being bottom at Christmas since Sheffield United survived relegation having been bottom of the original First Division on Christmas Day 1990. Their low of 6 wins and 34 points made them statistically the worst team ever to avoid relegation from the top flight, and Robson knew that a repeat of this form in 2005-06 would probably not be enough to secure survival again.
Prior to the 2005-2006 season, Robson brought in young Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland on loan and bought strikers Diomansy Kamara from Portsmouth and Nathan Ellington from Wigan Athletic. These new signings gave Albion hope of securing a third successive Premiership campaign.
Supporters had voiced their concerns via the local media, and fans' websites at the apparent lack of incoming transfer activity during the January transfer window. It was clear that should relegation occur, that chairman Jeremy Peace would be under pressure to explain his policy of replacing two forwards (Robert Earnshaw and Geoff Horsfield) with a central midfielder (Nigel Quashie from Southampton), in addition to the loan signings of another midfielder, Jan Kozak from Artmedia Bratislava and Urugyuyan centre half Williams Martinez. It seemed a puzzling decision at a time when the squad needed strengthening in attacking areas.
Bryan Robson and his players would have been looking to get at least 40 points by the end of the season - as this is usually the minimum target for clubs hoping to avoid Premiership relegation. However, a poor run of results in the new year left them close to relegation, and on 29 April 2006 they were relegated to The Championship after Portsmouth beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 leaving them nine points from safety with only six points to play for.
Supporters
Despite its proximity to Birmingham, the majority of Albion's supporters come from the nearby Black Country. The fanbase was traditionally working class, as befits such an industrial area, and this generally still holds true today.
Albion have a supporters club, which has branches throughout the United Kingdom, as well as in Ireland, Australia, Canada, Malta and Thailand.
The supporters of West Bromwich Albion are famous for the "Boing Boing" chant, which involves bouncing up and down when the team scores a goal. Albion fans are also noted for their "End of season parties", where a fancy-dress theme is adopted for the last away match of the season. Themes in past seasons have included suits, beachwear and even dressing as vikings.
Famous people who are known or rumoured to support West Bromwich Albion include:
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Rivalry
Albion have a fierce local rivalry with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Birmingham City. Since the late 1980s they have exercised their rivalry with Wolves the most frequently, having been in the same division for 11 seasons since 1989. During this time there were regular derbies with Birmingham. In 2002, Albion played Villa for the first time since 1988 and played eachother over three of the next four seasons.
Albion's well-known nicknames for the supporters of rival teams include "Dingles" for Wolverhampton Wanderers and "Seals" for Aston Villa.
Current first team squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Players out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Managerial History
Note that all managers prior to 1948 were given the title secretary-manager
- Louis Ford, (1890 - 1892)
- Henry Jackson, (1892 - 1894)
- Edward Stephenson, (1894 - 1895)
- Clement Keys, (1895 - 1896)
- Frank Heaven, (1896 - 1902)
- Fred Everiss, (1902 - 1948)
- Jack Smith, (1948 - 1952)
- Jesse Carver, (1952)
- Vic Buckingham, (1952 - 1959)
- Gordon Clark, (1959 - 1961)
- Archie Macaulay, (1961 - 1963)
- Jimmy Hagan, (1963 - 1967)
- Alan Ashman, (1967 - 1971)
- Don Howe, (1971 - 1975)
- Johnny Giles, (1975 - 1977)
- Ronnie Allen, (1977) - a stop gap replacement for Johnny Giles
- Ron Atkinson, (1978 - 1981) - had three-and-half years at the helm during which Albion were one of the country's most feared sides
- Ronnie Allen, (1981 - 1982) - quit after reaching the semi finals of both cup competitions but almost getting Albion relegated
- Ron Wylie, (1982 - 1984) - had two unsuccessful seasons as manager
- Johnny Giles, (1984 - 1985) - sacked after Albion's terrible start to the 1985-86 season
- Nobby Stiles, (1985 - 1986) - failed to make a difference to Albion's terrible form which saw them relegated to the Second Division
- Ron Saunders, (1986 - 1987) - failed to prevent relegation and was sacked after failing to mount a promotion challenge
- Ron Atkinson, (1987 - 1988) - second spell wasn't nearly as productive as first spell
- Brian Talbot, (1988 - 1991) - failed to impress as player-manager and was finally ousted as Albion slid towards the Second Division drop zone
- Bobby Gould, (1991 - 1992) - took Albion to their lowest ebb of relegation to the old Third Division and moved to Coventry a year later having failed to win promotion
- Osvaldo Ardiles, (1992 - 1993) - had one great season in charge and guided Albion to glory in the Division Two playoffs
- Keith Burkinshaw, (1993 - 1994) - spent one season in charge and was sacked after Albion almost went down from Division One
- Alan Buckley, (1994 - 1997) - spent two-and-a-half years in charge before being sacked for failing to get Albion anywhere near the top of Division One
- Ray Harford, (1997) - spent 10 months as manager before being lured away by QPR
- Denis Smith, (1997 - 1999) - ensured Division One survival for two seasons running but was sacked after just 18 months in charge
- Brian Little, (1999 - (2000) - lasted just eight months before Albion's dismal form cost Little his job and almost cost Albion their Division One status
- Gary Megson, (2000 - 2004) - achieved promotion to the Premiership twice but was sacked after announcing he would leave at the end of the season, with Albion struggling.
- Bryan Robson, (2004 - ) - achieved Premiership survival in 2005 but was unable to prevent relegation the following season
List of chairmen
- Sir Bert Millichip, (1974 - 1983)
- Sid Lucas, (1983 - 1988)
- John Silk, (1988 - 1992)
- Trevor Summers, (1992 - 1994)
- Tony Hale, (1994 - 2000)
- Paul Thompson, (2000 - 2002)
- Jeremy Peace, (2002 - )
Honours
- Football League Division One (old) [3]
- Champions: 1920
- Runners-Up: 1925, 1954
- Football League Division Two (old), Division One (new)
- Champions: 1902, 1911
- Runners-Up: 1931, 1949, 2002, 2004
- Football League Division Two (new)
- Playoff Winners: 1993
- FA Cup
- Winners: 1888, 1892, 1931, 1954, 1968
- Runners-Up: 1886, 1887, 1895, 1912, 1935
- Football League Cup
- Winners: 1966
- Runners-Up: 1967, 1970
- FA Charity Shield
- Winners: 1920, 1954 (shared with Wolves)
Trivia
- Albion achieved a unique "double" in 1931, winning the F.A. Cup and promotion to Division One in the same season. This feat is unlikely to be repeated.
- Albion were the first English team to play in Russia and then a couple of decades later the first English team to play in China. During the Chinese tour, midfielder John Trewick was asked what he thought of the Great Wall of China. His famous reply was "Once you've seen one wall, you've seen them all".
Bibliography
- Matthews, T. (2002). The Official Encyclopaedia of West Bromwich Albion. Britespot. ISBN 1-904103-16-2.
- McOwen, G. (2002). The Essential History of West Bromwich Albion. Hodder. ISBN 0-7553-1146-9.
- Rollin, G&J (2001). Rothmans Football Yearbook 2001-2002. Headline. ISBN 0-7472-7260-3.
Footnotes
- ^ http://home.skysports.com/column.aspx?hlid=284528&lid=Back_of_the_Net_column&title=Goran+goes+for+Baggies
- ^ Clapton claimed to support Albion after racist comments were attributed to him during the mid-1970s, when West Bromwich Albion were at the height of fighting racism in football. He also played a concert for John Wile's testimonial, and the back of the Album Backless features an Albion scarf draped over a guitar.
- ^ Up until 1992, the top division of English football was the Football League First Division; since then, it has been the FA Premier League. At the same time, the Second Division was renamed the First Division, and the Third Division was renamed the Second Division.
External links
- West Bromwich Albion F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results and fixtures
- Official site
- www.baggies.com (Unofficial fan-run site)
- Independent West Brom site
- www.wbaunofficial.com (Unofficial site)
- Albion Till We Die (Unofficial site)
- West Bromwich Albion Football Chants
- Premierleague.com - West Bromwich Albion
- West Bromwich Albion Kits from the Past
- www.frappr.com/baggies (Worldwide Fanmeet)
