1.. So after two years in the premiership, your back in the Championship. Was it a shock to find yourselves being relegated last season after consolidating the year before ?
It was a little shock to the system to be fair, we expected to move on and strengthen the squad enough to stay away from a relegation dog fight but we started poorly and the chairman decided against improving the squad in January leaving us short on players for the run in. Selling Rob Earnshaw and Geoff Horsfield in January without replacing them was criminal and I believe that is what cost us our Premiership status.
2..Buying John Hartson must have pleased the West Brom faithfull ?
Signing John Hartson is a real coup by Bryan Robson, he is the perfect target man and will add his fair share of goals, his ability to hold the ball up and get the midfield involved will also be very important for us.
3..Luckily Bryan Robson has managed to hold on to the majority of the squad from last season, how important was it to the fans that you didn’t sell your best assets?
Until August 31st has gone I will reserve judgment, the vultures are circling and I believe that if a club comes in with an offer that suits Albion then we may see players like Curtis Davies, Tomasz Kusczcak and Zoltan Gera leaving. I must admit that I have a lot of respect for the Albion board for refusing all offers so far and I hope they continue to do so until that August deadline passes.
4..Do you see any more new signings coming to the Hawthorns ?
Hopefully there will be at least one more striker coming in, someone like Freddy Eastwood at Southend to play off Hartson and give Nathan Ellington something to think about. A goalkeeper will be needed if we lose Kuszczak, your Bo Myhill would be the perfect replacement. We are also looking to bring in defender Danny Shittu and former Liverpool midfielder David Thompson
5..We haven’t played you since May 1993, What do you guys know about the current Hull City set up ?
I know that you have a fantastic stadium and a good bunch of fans, I don’t know too much about your players. Myhill and Barmby are the only two I really know of, I understand that Phil Parkinson has took over from Peter Taylor which I think is a fantastic move for you as he is a fantastic young manager.
6.. I know you have class all the way through the team but who is the player we will have to look out for ?
Zoltan Gera is going to be a cracking player at this level, he proved himself in the Premiership and if we can retain his services for the season ahead he will be a dangerous player for us.
7.. And the weak link ?
Nathan Ellington is at the moment, Albion fans are becoming frustrated with the former Wigan man, they are fully aware of the ability this bloke has but he has yet to show the form he had at the JJB at The Hawthorns. On his day he can be a handful but for some reason his day doesn’t come around that often, I am hoping that this season he will prove himself.
8..What are the fans expectations for this season ?
We want promotion, the expectations may have dropped if we lost a number of first team players to the Premiership but we have managed to retain all of them so automatic promotion is a must.
9..If you don’t get promoted do you think there will be a lot of pressure on Bryan Robson to quit ?
If we fail to win promotion Bryan Robson will be out of a job, he missed out on the objective of keeping us up last season so the pressure is on him to get us back up there.
10..Have you got a score prediction for the K.C game ?
I think we will win the game at The Hawthorns, we need a good start and with no disrespect to Hull I would expect us to start the campaign with 3 points. As for the game at the K.C it will be a lot tougher and I would be happy with a point.
11..Finally I would like to wish you luck for the forthcoming campaign, but not too muchï??
Right back at you, I hope Parkinson can bring to you guys what he learnt at Colchester and prove himself at a higher level.
I returned the favour and answered the questions they sent me, to view the Hull City interview click below.
they have one of the best squads in the championship and can see them being top of the league by the end of august
matty17x