West Bromwich Albion

If a week is a long time in football then the almost three months since Liverpool dispensed with the services of Roy Hodsgon feels something like a lifetime.

Liverpool quickly moved on. 'King' Kenny Dalglish returned and the 'feelgood factor' that comes with so many a returning hero helped reinvigorate a season that looked like petering out. In that time another former Kop hero in Fernando Torres left, and two potential new ones arrived in the form of strikers Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll.

Life at Liverpool is never quiet, and their resurgent chase to grab a European place and salvage a season has never been far from the headlines or our TV screens. While hardly unnoticed but comparatively under the radar, down at West Bromwich Albion, Roy Hodgson has been attempting to salvage another campaign and his own reputation at the same time.

When in 2007/08 Hodgson helped keep Fulham in the Premier League after another mid-season appointment it was far from a miracle turn around. It took a sustained effort as he helped to reinvigorate what looked a lost cause. Even then it took a fantastic comeback away at Manchester City (winning 3-2) and a last day victory to stay up.

A similar pragmatism has been applied in his approach at West Brom, though they were not in quite as dire need as Fulham were.

Failing to hold a three goal lead and drawing 3-3 at home to West Ham in Hodgson's first game, Baggies fans would have been forgiven for feeling a little apprehensive that not much had changed in the poor defensive displays that conspired to derail a bright start to the season. But Hodgson has helped keep his team on track, and that draw became the first in a six-match unbeaten run that has yet to be ended.

Four of those were draws. But two of them saw late equalisers from loan-striker Carlos Vela, including the Black Country derby with Wolves, and the other was against Arsenal. Among these was a comfortable 3-1 away win at Birmingham, with a wonderfully well taken goal from James Morrison exemplifying a growing confidence. Just under a month later, Liverpool were in town.

Whether or not Roy Hodgson was capable of being a long-term success in Merseyside we will never know. A big reason for that is he was never given a proper chance by an Anfield faithful inpatient for results and some hint Liverpool could be restored to former glories.

Admittedly performances on the whole under Hodgson were poor, and results replicated that. For as storied and successful a club as Liverpool perhaps under no circumstances is this ever good enough. But issues on and off the pitch existed from the previous manager's time, and their failure to ever get behind a respected and as proven at Fulham, talented manager, was a startling lack of class for a fanbase as passionate and intelligent as theirs.

Back at The Hawthorns last weekend you would have forgiven Hodgson any thoughts of revenge for a club who had quickly got rid of him. As Chris Brunt fired in a second penalty to give West Brom an 88th minute lead, you would have forgiven Hodgson for wanting to charge up to the visiting Liverpool fans Adebayor-style and enjoy what would become the sweetest of victories.

But Hodgson displayed a class and calmness that has been extolled by so many over the past week, preferring to put out any sparks of hostility and praise those he had worked with at Anfield, and more importantly highlight the value of a victory that had moved West Brom four points clear of 18th-placed West Ham to 12th in the league table.

A visit to a stuttering Sunderland side comes next for West Brom, followed by difficult fixtures against Chelsea and Tottenham then a pair of local rivalries are resumed as they meet Aston Villa and West Brom.

Their Premier League fate is far from assured. But should West Brom continue their recent run of form they will go some way to restoring the unfairly tarnished reputation of one of English football's best managers and most genuine men.

Ex-Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has taken over for Roberto Di Matteo as manager of West Bromwich Albion after the Italian was sacked following a disastrous run of results that saw the Baggies lose 13 of their last 18 games.

It will be the 63-year-old's 21st management job in a football career that has spanned 46 years.

The move back into the dugout has come much quicker than anyone expected, including Hodgson.

From being unceremoniously sacked by Liverpool after just six months, it was assumed by the watching football world that the well-liked manager would take a well-deserved break from the game.

However, it would seem that his desire to succeed Fabio Capello as England manager next summer after the Euro 2012 finals would be the main catalyst to a quick return to the game.

After England's shocking display in the World Cup in South Africa last summer, it was widely believed the FA would sack Capello.

That turned out not to be the case, though, as the FA could not afford to part company with the Italian due to the massive compensation package he would have been due.

Hodgson, manager at Fulham at the time, was monitoring all of this with great interest. He was the favourite to take over as England boss from Capello and had made it known that he was very interested in the position if and when it became available.

With Liverpool having just parted company with Rafael Benitez, they too were looking for a manager to right their sinking ship.

Remember, Liverpool FC was in absolute turmoil in July as the very real fear of administration crept nearer and nearer.

Fearing the worst, Christian Purslow approached Hodgson on becoming the 18th manager at Anfield. Hodgson, while interested, held off on making decision until Fabio Capello's position became clear.

When it was apparent that the FA were going to keep faith with the Italian until after Euro 2012, Hodgson went with Liverpool, but taking over the international hot seat was always a major item on his future agenda.

Since those heady days of the summer, though, Hodgson's reputation has taken something of a battering.

He did help steady the club by convincing both Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres that their immediate futures were intrinsically linked with the stability of the club.

As Tom Hicks and George Gillett looked to sell the club before the October deadline, potential buyers like Kenny Huang, Peter Lim, and NESV made it clear that Fernando Torres staying was essential to their purchase of the club.

Hodgson, fresh from signing Joe Cole on a free transfer from Chelsea, flew to Madrid to meet with Torres at his family home.

After explaining how Torres was central to the health of the club going forward, and how in most probability that Hicks and Gillett would pocket any monies accrued from his transfer, he decided to stay for one more year, or until the club was stable.

Unfortunately for Hodgson, all the best work he achieved for Liverpool Football Club was off the field. The League Managers Association Manager-of-the Year 2010 only managed to win 13 games from 31 with his overall record reading as PLD-31 W-13 D-9 L-9.

It would be fair to say that the Kop never really took to Hodgson. Almost from day one Liverpool fans called for, the current manager and Hodgson's successor, Kenny Dalglish, to be given one more chance.

It would also be fair to say that Hodgson looked out of his depth at Anfield and that the gravity of the position and all the pressure it entails were too much for him to handle.

His brave attempt was not helped by the fact that his communication skills were decidedly poor and that he made several serious errors of judgment, most notably when he alienated the Kop after Liverpool lost 1-0 to Wolves.

From there, NESV and John Henry had little option other than to part company with their manager and install Dalglish as a caretaker manager until the end of the season.

As a manager, Hodgson is famed for his thoroughness and insistence that certain plays are practised time and time again. When he first took over at Fulham, he would spend hours practising one kind of counter attack and would not move onto another play until his team had perfected it.

It is a style of management that takes a long time for players to see the sense in. Players are selfish creatures and are generally fixated on results as they are what their payment and bonuses are based upon.

If they do not come in then as a certain training technique is applied, then the fault is with the training. If results are good, then they usually feel that the training is worthwhile.

At Fulham, this approach took Hodgson months before his players finally began to believe in him. The end result was the Cottagers being very comfortable in the Premier League, challenging for Europe in successive seasons, and making it to the Europa League Final.

The same approach did not work at Anfield. How the Liverpool players felt about his style of coaching is unknown, but it is clear for all to see that the players' enthusiasm and efforts have doubled under Kenny Dalglish.

With his reputation tarnished by the excellent job that the new Liverpool boss has done in just 34 days and as Harry Redknapp sits comfortably in pole position to get the job he craves so much, Hodgson has returned to the game.

"It was not my intention to return to Barclays Premier League football this quickly," said Hodgson.

"But I was so impressed by the way the chairman (Jeremy Peace) and the sporting and technical director (Dan Ashworth) sold the project to me that I was very happy to accept the offer.

"I am delighted that a club of West Bromwich Albion's stature has given me the opportunity to help them in their quest to retain their Premier League status and to build for the future."

Obviously Hodgson has not been given the job off the back of his failure at Liverpool but rather on his experience as a manager and the superb job he did at Fulham.

West Brom has developed a reputation as being something of a yo-yo club and has been relegated to the Championship and promoted back to the Premier League four times in the last decade.

Their owner, Jeremy Peace, had hoped that up-and-coming manager Roberto Di Matteo would be the man to finally make WBA a fixture in the EPL, but history has shown us differently.

Now he has turned to Hodgson to achieve his dream.

"I am delighted to welcome Roy as our new head coach. At such a vital stage of the season, we felt it was important we identified and appointed the right man as quickly as possible," he said.

"Roy emerged as the outstanding and unanimous choice and we are delighted to have appointed our No. 1 target. We believe his vast experience and knowledge of the game are exactly what we need for the challenge we face, both in the short and long term."

It could be a match made in heaven.

Hodgson has 18 months before Fabio Capello vacates the England hot seat and if he can guide the Baggies out of the current slump to avoid relegation and help cement their position in the Premier League next season, he is sure to be a leading candidate again.

Will he fulfill his dream of becoming England boss? Only time will tell.

The January transfer window has passed and the English Premier League season is almost two-thirds over. There’s an unfashionable Premiership side that you might want to keep in mind when it comes time to tinkering with your roster over the next five gameweeks.

For me, that team is West Bromwich Albion.

Granted, WBA are one of the worst form sides at the moment, but if there’s a time for them to bounce back, it’s in the next few weeks.

Apologies for not writing this last week, as West Brom, who are fifth from the bottom, have a favorable run starting Feb. 1 when they are home to Wigan, who are third from the bottom. After a matchup to avoid Saturday at Man City, West Brom have two fantastic fixtures at The Hawthorns: home against West Ham and Wolves—the league’s two worst sides.

After that, the Baggies are away at Stoke and at Birmingham. While a draw at mid-table Stoke would be deemed a success, Birmingham represents a very winnable game since they are one place below West Brom at 17th.

In my Barclays Fantasy Premier League side are forward Peter Odemwingie, who bagged his seventh and eighth goals of the season against Blackpool two weeks ago; midfielder Chris Brunt, the team’s highest fantasy point-getter with 87 (one more than Odemwingie); and defender Gonzalo Jara, a mediocre fantasy player who nonetheless is in position to pick up some valuable points from very possible clean sheets.

Another Baggie to consider is Carlos Vela, the Mexico forward who was loaned out to the club from Arsenal. Vela failed to get first-team action in north London, but the quality he showed with his national side could finally shine with the Albion.

Fulham vs. West Brom

This is a clash between two teams that come into the game in the worst possible manner, with Fulham once again back in the drop zone and West Brom fresh from a defeat at the hands of Manchester United. While drawing matches has been the problem for Fulham, the Baggies recently have found it difficult to score goals at the right time.

West Brom played well against Manchester United throughout the match, but had they scored the penalty, along with being more clinical with their other chances, they would have come away from the match with all three points. However, as it is, West Brom is at the bottom of the form table going into this match and so is Fulham.

Mark Hughes will be hoping that they get something out of this game, because failure to do so will result in the gap between them and safety stretching out.

West Brom is now just three points above the drop zone and Roberto di Matteo will be very cautious about not ending up in the slog war that is the relegation battle. Mark Schwarzer is the major casualty for Fulham, as he joins up with the Australian team for the Asian Cup.

Fulham vs. West Brom kicks off at 21:00 CET on Craven Cottage.

Blackpool vs. Birmingham

Blackpool will be hosting the first game at Bloomfield Road in over a month, and they could not have asked for a better fixture as they prepare to host a struggling Birmingham City side.

Blackpool has been promising as of late, but their last defeat against Manchester City did not do them any favours. If you thought that Blackpool's situation worsened as a result of the Manchester City defeat, Birmingham City is in an even deeper mire after a 3-0 home loss to Arsenal put them into the bottom three for the first time this season.

However, Alex McLeish will be confident going into this match, having already beaten Blackpool in the reverse fixture this season. If they can repeat that result, then Birmingham's troubles will be put aside for at least one week.

Even though Blackpool is in a comfortable position at 11th place in the Premier League table, Ian Holloway will be hoping to avoid consecutive defeats within one week. David Carney is the prominent absentee for Blackpool, while James McFadden is still not back for Birmingham City. However, that aside, McLeish has a full strength squad to put out.

Blackpool vs. Birmingham kicks off at 21:00 CET on Bloomfield Road.

Man Utd vs. Stoke City

Manchester United will be very happy to come back to Old Trafford once again, as they have endured a torrid time away from home this season. The weekend victory against West Brom was just one win among a sea of draws, which does not make for good reading if the club wants to challenge for the title.

Stoke City has also been unspectacular over the past few months, and Tony Pulis has not been able to put in a steady run of results. Hence, they find themselves unable to challenge Sunderland and Bolton for the European qualification places.

Alex Ferguson will be boosted by the return of Wayne Rooney on the scoring sheet, but he has revealed that Rooney will be facing a late fitness test in order to determine his participation in the game. Likewise, Patrice Evra is also a doubt for this game. Stoke City has been boosted by the return of Robert Huth, who returns to the side after a one-game suspension. Apart from the injury to Mamady Sidibe, Pulis has a full-strength squad to play in this match.

Man Utd vs. Stoke kicks off at 21:00 CET on Old Trafford.

Xavier @ mysportshub.co.uk

Shameful.

That is the only word that comes to mind when considering Everton's season so far.

By now, it could certainly be safe to say that any preseason hopes of a top-four climb have thoroughly been obliterated by consistently poor performances in the past month. It may even be overly optimistic to expect a mid-table finish for the boys in blue come May.

As in previous home matches against Newcastle United and Arsenal, David Moyes' men were both outscored and outplayed this afternoon by another promoted side and finished 4-1 losers, leaving supporters at Goodison Park dumbfounded and in absolute frustration.

Except for Tim Cahill, the entire team continues to underwhelm. Once again, the likes of Yakubu, Louis Saha and Jermaine Beckford, arguably the most disappointing player of this season, have fired blanks in front of goal.

It is true that many decisions have gone against Everton. Lee Mason's imbecilic dismissal of Mikel Arteta for a stomp on Gonzalo Jara that the Chilean defender did not even seem to notice left the Toffees a man down early on in the second half. Nevertheless, there can really be no decent excuse for another loss in front of home supporters, and the type of clueless play that has defined the previous 14 encounters, barring perhaps the 2-0 win to local rivals Liverpool.

With a visit to Chelsea upcoming, David Moyes and his men must only be expecting the worst. If Everton have not been good enough to overcome all three sides to have come up from the Championship, as well as relegation contenders Wolverhampton Wanderers and League One side Brentford in the Carling Cup, then there could be no reasonable explanation as to hope for even a point against the potential champions at Stamford Bridge.

Only the influx of new signings in January might be enough to turn around Everton's season. Unless David Moyes can find a way to either start with two out-and-out strikers or get Saha, probably the best of his current crop of forwards, to begin scoring, then who knows what the Blues will have to deal with as the season progresses. Perhaps a home loss to Blackpool? Or a battering at the hands of the equally clueless West Ham?

The only thing that remains certain is that for the second season in a row, Everton have failed to live up to their hype and lie at the bottom half of the table, fighting for scraps. And this time there are no injury woes to excuse them of this shamefulness.

"I think we are trying to play the same football that we played last year, We started very well this season and scored a lot of goals, showing good football. We have to know that today was a tough game and in the first half Wigan played good football and put strong pressure on the pitch, maybe they spent a lot of energy in the first half, The second half was easier for us to have more opportunities to score.

In the first half we had a lot of difficulty on the pitch and were not able to play our football because there was not the space. I think at that time we defended very well, we didn't give Wigan the opportunity to score and we waited for the right time to score. This is important because in football you have to be able to defend and attack. It is impossible to have total control of the game with possession, sometimes you have to defend and in the first half we defended very well.

We have a lot of skills, now the best quality is we are able to do a fantastic counter-attack, we have strikers who are fast with ability, so when we have space it is difficult to control for the opponent, Obviously we wanted to win the game and to play well, and we did both. We won two games, played good football and scored a lot of goals but we are focused to play good football.

It is impossible to think we are always to score six goals in a game, this is not real football, this is Playstation. It never happened to me, but we have to stay in focus for the next game, try to win the next game and show good football."

Anyone fancy 7-0?

'Didier did a fantastic job, not just because he scored but he worked for the team very hard, as did Anelka and Malouda. They all worked very hard defensively. That is the mentality of our strikers, they are working for the team and it was a good start, we wanted to win because we had a difficult pre-season.

We played a good game, we showed good football, scored a lot of goals and there are a lot of good things to come from this game. We started the first half well, kept a high tempo on the pitch, but it wasn't our game until the second goal. Then it was easier for us because there was more space up front and we had a lot of possibility to score.

We knew we had a problem, We decided to give our players who played in the World Cup another six days of holiday. It was necessary for them to have a full recovery and we knew the first game of the pre-season we couldn't play them. Also Cech, Alex, Drogba, Essien, all had problems during pre-season but they are all very close to their best condition now. John Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard also showed good condition today.

Maybe they are still not in the best condition but they have time now to arrive in the best condition. Now the squad is complete. Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry can still improve their condition. In two weeks they will be 100 per cent.

We did our job, nothing special, This team can show this kind of play, can score a lot of goals and this is our job.'

'Playing the champions away for the first game of the season, you know it is going to be a tough game, There aren't many teams who come away winners from Stamford Bridge. You can see why they are champions they are strong in every department. They are very good and it is very difficult to play against them. Now we have to learn very quickly and we have to improve very quickly as well. On the upside we won't be playing Chelsea every week!'

With the Premier League season now rapidly approaching, I have decided to take a look at each of the 20 sides that will be playing at the top level of English football during this upcoming season.

To start off my countdown, I have decided to actually go in reverse order with Wolverhampton starting off the list, and Arsenal concluding this list right before the start of the Premier League season.

In the fourth part of this preview, I will look at West Bromwich Albion , who finished second in the Championship, which gave West Brom an automatic spot in the Premier League this season after being sent down the year prior.

Review of Last Year:

After being relegated the season before from the Premier League, West Brom were able to rebound once again and finish second in the Championship, which promoted the Baggies to the Premier League.

West Brom were able to do this thanks to some great play on Graham Dorrans and Chris Brunt, both of whom provided enough offense for the Baggies to make the Premier League.

Now, Roberto Di Matteo's men find themselves in the top division of English football for the fifth season since 2002.

Transfers:

Incoming Players:

Steven Reid (Blackburn), Pablo Ibañez (Atlético Madrid) and Gabriel Sebastian Tamas (AJ Auxerre).

Departing Players:

Roberto Di Matteo spent the best part of six years away from the game after reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that his playing career was over.

Since returning to football in 2008, first as manager of MK Dons and then West Bromwich Albion, he has more than made up for lost time, fast establishing himself as one of the brightest managerial prospects in the English game.

Born in Switzerland to Italian parents, Di Matteo enjoyed a stellar playing career which took him from Switzerland to Italy to England before being brutally cut short by injury. In 1993 he won the Swiss league with Aarau and was named Swiss player of the year, securing a transfer to Italian giants Lazio.

He spent three seasons at Lazio and was called up to the Italian national team for the first of his 39 caps. He went on to represent Italy at the European Championships in 1996 and the World Cup in 1998.

After a falling out with Lazio, he was snapped up by Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit in the summer of 2006. He was soon joined by his Italian teammate Gianfranco Zola, and together the two helped Chelsea to win two FA Cups, the League Cup, and the European Cup Winner’s Cup.

Di Matteo also scored what was then the fastest goal in FA Cup Final history, hitting the back of the net after just 42 seconds against Middlesbrough in a match Chelsea would go on to win 2-0.

He also represented Italy at the European Championships in 1996 and the World Cup in 1998 and would presumably have gone on to collect even more silverware had his career not come to an abrupt end in a UEFA Cup match in his native Switzerland. Di Matteo suffered a triple leg fracture, meaning that, aged 30, he had to face up to the fact that he had played his final match as a professional footballer.

Since returning from his extended absence from the game, Di Matteo has quickly embarked on a successful managerial career.

He was lured out of retirement by MK Dons and took them to the League One playoffs where they were only defeated by penalty shootout. West Bromwich Albion regarded him as the perfect candidate to take them back into the Premiership and Di Matteo gained promotion in his first season at the club courtesy of a second place finish.

In his two seasons as a manager, Di Matteo has finished third with MK Dons and second with West Brom. He has yet to experience failure, but keeping West Brom in the top tier of English football will be the greatest challenge of his managerial career.

If West Brom’s Premiership tenancy it to be anything more than temporary Di Matteo will need to work wonders with what he acknowledges will be a meager preseason transfer budget.

"We are going to have a cautious approach to next season and it has been well documented that we are not going to spend lots of money. We are going to be realistic and we are going to try to use what we have to build a competitive side that can stay up," he said.

Avoiding relegation with a seventeenth placed finish would be regarded as a serious accomplishment but Di Matteo is reluctant to set any specific expectations,

"We are not going to set ourselves a target we are just going to try and do as well as we can and aim for the highest position possible. I am not going to say we want to finish 17th, we are going to try and win as many matches as we can and see where we finish."

He will be joined in the Premiership by fellow Italians Carlo Ancelotti, who is the manager of Chelsea, and Roberto Mancini, who was recently appointed manager of Manchester City.

Another Italian manager, Gianfranco Zola, will be conspicuous by his absence. He was dismissed by West Ham after an unsatisfactory second season, and Di Matteo is disappointed that he will not be able to pit managerial wits against his former Chelsea and Italy teammate.

"He is a good friend of mine and I was sad to hear that he was sacked, but that is part of our jobs, we know that at any time you have a bad run of results you can be sacked. I will be seeing him this summer and we will hopefully enjoy a nice round of golf in Sardinia."

Di Matteo laughed off the suggestion that he and Zola might form some sort of a managerial dream team at West Brom next season. "West Brom already have one manager, I don’t think they need another one."

While Zola’s reign at West Ham might have come to an abrupt end earlier this month, Mancini and Ancelotti are likely to remain at their respective clubs and Di Matteo has a huge amount of respect for both men.

"Mancini is in a different league to me, he has got much more experience and I am not at all surprised how well Chelsea have done under Ancelotti. He was assistant manager to Arrigo Sacchi when I was playing for the national team and he has managed some big teams before and obviously done well so I knew he was a good manager. At Chelsea expectations are very high but he has done an excellent job."

Ancelotti and Mancini are likely to be given multi-million pound budgets to strengthen their already impressive squads this summer. Di Matteo might not have the same sort of resources at his disposal but he is looking forward to the challenge of managing in the same division as some of his compatriots.

"We are excited to be in the Premier League and to be measuring ourselves against the best teams in the world and I am excited to be measuring myself against the best managers in the world because they all work in the Premier League."

All his managerial achievements to date will pale into insignificance if, having got his current side into the Premiership, he can actually succeed in keeping them there. When the new Premiership season arrives in three months time it will bring with it intense expectation and severe scrutiny.

If Di Matteo the manager can thrive under these challenging conditions than he could put the pain caused by the premature ending of his playing career behind him once and for all.

West Brom left back Paul Robinson has revealed that he would love to join Tony Mowbray at Celtic. Robinson is said to be gutted at Mowbray leaving The Hawthorns, and admits he will be considering his own future at the club.

The left back came close to signing for Celtic last summer, and he hopes that Mowbray will make a move to bring him north in a potential £1.5 million move. Celtic have been having constant problems at the Left Back position, with Lee Naylor out of form since his first season at the Parkhead club, and Robinson would be an ideal candidate for the problematic position.

Robbo said, “I’m desperately disappointed about the gaffer leaving. I’d heard a few whispers about it towards the end of the season and had a good idea he wouldn’t be able to resist going back to Celtic. He will be a huge loss to West Brom but it’s a massive bonus for Celtic.

"I know a few of the players are not happy we’ve lost him and I include myself in that. I’m considering my future and if the chance came to go to Celtic with the gaffer I’d be delighted to do so. I came close to moving to Parkhead last year but it didn’t happen. Maybe it will now.

“I would love to move to a Premiership side but working with Tony at a huge club such as Celtic is appealing. I enjoyed the gaffer’s training and the football he had us playing. Yes, we didn’t stay in the Premiership but we took a lot of satisfaction from the way we played against some top teams. And nobody can argue with the success the gaffer brought to West Brom during his time in charge. I think he will be able to marry attractive football and success at Celtic Park. He also has a good coaching staff in Mark Venus and Peter Grant. Credit to Celtic for getting them. They will be a hard act to follow.”

Source: Sunday Mail