Ally Robertson: Bonuses shouldn't be a factor for West Brom players
Money shouldn’t come into it when you’re a player and a squad striving for promotion.
It’s the same when you reach the latter stages of cup competitions – professional pride and a competitive streak take over.
Albion’s players should be desperate to go up, regardless of any monetary incentive.
But if a £10million bonus shared between the squad doesn’t egg the players on for the run-in, then nothing will.
Promotion bonuses are nothing new. When I was playing you knew you would be getting a little extra at the end of the season if you went up or won a cup.
But it wasn’t written into the contract, and it would be the last thing you were worried about when you were playing.
Even with the huge rewards the Premier League has to offer, a £10m pot does seem like a lot.
Footballers get paid handsomely enough these days.
Although perhaps players in this day and age think more about the money on offer just because there is so much more of it.
The way I look at it though, is that it would take £10m out of Darren Moore’s transfer kitty for the summer.
If promotion is achieved, then the squad is going to need strengthening and that £10m could be better served bringing in new players to help with the top tier.
The squad is obviously strong for the Championship, but there are six loanees who might not necessarily be here next season.
And for such a strong squad, it’s been disappointing to see so few game-changers on the bench in the past few weeks, particularly at home.
Albion are lacking a No.10 at The Hawthorns, a creative spark to unpick the lock of disciplined defences that are setting up to frustrate the Baggies.
Next up at home is bottom-club Ipswich, which should be the perfect tonic to the patchy home form.
Fail to beat them at The Hawthorns and you don’t deserve to go up.
We’ve just played Leeds and Sheffield United, but for the next few weeks we can’t get distracted looking at what our rivals are up to.
We need to focus on our own results, and make sure our own house is in order.
Leave the rubber-necking until the last couple of games in the season, if indeed it goes down to that.
Forget the others, forget the money, and focus on what we are doing.
