Ally Robertson: Darren Moore the only one to emerge with any West Brom credit
I’ve been relegated as a player – and it’s horrible.
It’s the worst thing that can happen to you in football.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been hoping and praying that somehow, against all the odds, it wouldn’t happen.
Darren Moore has been great, he’s got the fans back on side, and he’s got the players to perform for him. It just goes to show what you can do with the right attitude.
We’ve now got to build for next season, make sure we keep the right players, and appoint the right manager. Because the last appointment was a disaster.
Who do you blame for this season? Well you’ve got to blame a bit on everybody. The people who brought Alan Pardew in have to shoulder some of the criticism.
They thought he was the right manager at the time but they got it completely wrong.
Pardew also deserves criticism. Having spoken to some of the players, it seems he was trying to make them play in a completely different way to what they knew.
The players also need to come under the spotlight. When you give 100 per cent, even if you get beaten the fans will say ‘at least they tried’.
But it didn’t look like you could say that for a lot of the games this season.
Players get paid very handsomely these days, whether they play or not, which means the only incentive is your own professionalism and that leaves it open to being abused.
But Darren has completely changed the attitude of the squad, and the crowd too.
He’s making an incredibly strong case for the job, and if there’s nobody else that immediately jumps out at the board, then he deserves a shot.
His response to winning Premier League manager of the month epitomised everything he’s about.
Gathering more than 100 of the club’s support staff at the training ground to share in the prize showed humility and togetherness.
I don’t think you could say there was the same atmosphere around the club and the training ground in the six months previously under Pardew.
Whenever a new manager comes in, players automatically pick up because they’re playing for their places and there are fresh ideas on the training ground.
So I wasn’t surprised by Darren’s impact, but I have been mightily impressed. He’s obviously a manager who players want to run through brick walls for. And that’s important.
